Trouble
by GateKeeperSyn
Summary: EC3 is a great heel and an even better telepath, but he can't read the new Knockout Emily's thoughts. Even more troubling is her precocious 7-year-old daughter Abigail who likes putting EC3 in his place. Determined to find out their story, Michael befriends them, but as it turns out, they may be hiding something far more dangerous than he thought.
1. Chapter 1

**ONE**

I am exceptionally good at what I do.

That sounded braggy. Let me try again. My name is Michael, but most people know me by my ring name, Ethan Carter III. As EC3, it is my job to make people hate me. Seriously, I literally get paid to piss people off. The fans _love _to hate me. This makes me a very good at my job.

My _other _job is more complicated, and it doesn't pay as well as wrestling does. Actually, it doesn't pay at _all, _but it _should_. I am a telepath. Yes, that means I know what people are thinking, and yes, I heard that. _And _that, too. Jeez, do you kiss your mother with that mind?

Moving on, I'm telling this story because someone should. It's not really mine to tell, it's her's... But here I am, and here I go.

I met her at her very first night wrestling with TNA. She wasn't green, but I didn't recognize her. I watched her train with Tanea, our very own Knockout Rebel. "Who's the new girl?" I asked James. You probably know James better as Spud. Yes, surprisingly, we are actually extremely close friends when not in character. He totally sends me random text messages with Winnie the Pooh quotes, too.

"Hey, Michael," he greeted me. "That's Emily. She's our newest Knockout, Abstract."

"Abstract... That's kind of badass." I studied her, liking her unique ring name and her equally unique style. "Hmmm... That's weird."

"What is?"

"I can't get a read on her. That girl's mind is completely blocked."

"I thought you don't actively try to read minds."

"I don't, unless the mind in question is completely silent. _That _makes me wonder what the person is hiding."

"You think she did that on purpose?"

"Only the strongest blocks keep me out, and even those I can usually break through with a little effort."

"But not with her?"

"No... There's nothing there, James."

"Why is she special?"

"Exactly." I was fascinated. It really _was _rare that I met a person who could keep me out of their head. "She's pretty, too..."

Emily looked toward us then and I saw amusement on her face. That's when I realized that although I couldn't hear her thoughts, she _could_ hear me and James talking. I had the good grace to blush slightly as I looked her in the eye. I wondered how much of our psychic rambling she understood. Was she psychic? Although a lot of wrestlers were, not everyone was. If she was a mere mortal, she'd think we were nuts. If she was psychic, she was being awfully rude by not telling us.

Emily tossed her brown curls over her shoulders and laughed. She tapped Tanea's back, signalling she was ready for a break, and took a few sips of water before walking toward me and James.

"Emily Farrow," she said, extending her hand toward me.

"Hello, Emily. Nice to meet you," I said. "I'm Michael."

"I know. Nice to meet you, too. I absolutely hate you, so keep up the good work!" She gave me a thumbs up.

I smiled my best smile at her. She hardly seemed to notice. I wasn't sure if I was losing my touch or if she was just immune to my charms.

A small person who with hidden beneath an enormous mass of brown curls came toward us. "Are you finished yet?" The squeaky little voiced entity asked.

"Almost, honey," Emily said. "Abigail, this is James and Michael. Gentlemen, this is my daughter, Abigail."

"Hello, Miss Abigail," James said politely, crouching down so he was her height.

"Hi, Abby. Nice to meet you," I added.

"My name is _Abigail_," she corrected me precociously. "Nicknames are for people I know."

"Well, you can call me Mikey or Mike if you want to."

"The same rules are true. _Michael._"

Wow. Not only had I struck out with the mom, but I was striking out with the kid, too. "Um... _How _old is she?" I asked Emily.

"I can speak for myself. I'm right here. And I'm seven."

"Going on seventeen," Emily added with an exaggerated sigh, but the smile on her face betrayed how amused she was by watching her non-child-creature put me in my place.

The Abigail Creature looked at me smugly. Could seven-year-olds legally _be _smug? Like, was that even kosher?

James was politely trying not to laugh aloud, but his thoughts betrayed him. I shook my head. "I stand corrected, Abigail," I said. "I shouldn't have assumed you'd want to be called Abby or anything else."

She nodded and studied me, like she was trying to figure me out and decide if she liked me or not. It was a mutual thing.

"I have to go back to training, sweetheart," Emily said. "If you want to stay and watch, I'm sure James and Michael won't mind." She gave Emily a kiss on her head before heading back to the ring.

It was nice that _Emily _was sure I wouldn't mind babysitting, because _I _certainly wasn't sure. The Abigail Creature was clearly a handful. James didn't seem to mind, though. He's a kid magnet. I think it's because he's about the same height as them.

"Your mum's quite good," James told her.

"She's the _best_," Abigail told him. Although I suspected if she said it to me, it would have sounded like an angry correction, when she talked to James, she just sounded in awe of her mother.

"Has she been wrestling long?"

"She started before I was born."

"What does your dad do?"

"I don't know. My mom says he's dead, but that's just to make me feel better, and I pretend I believe her to make _her _feel better."

_That is _definitely _not a kid, _I decided. I tried to slip into her mind because I was fascinated by the way she talked and wanted to take a peak at her thought patterns, but just like with her mother, I got nowhere. Maybe it was a genetic thing.

Abigail looked at me like she knew exactly what I was trying to do. I felt guilty, like a little kid caught using a cheat sheet on an exam. It's kind of unethical to intentionally read someone's mind just so you can figure them out, but I'm a naturally curious person and I couldn't help it.

I focused on her mother. Emily was clearly more seasoned as a wrestler than Tanea was, even though Tanea was probably older. I actually wasn't sure how old Emily was, but Tanea had come into wrestling very late in her life for someone to start. Prior to that, she'd been a cheerleader. It was obvious Emily had been wrestling for a while. She moved with a precision, awareness, and skill that only came from years in the business.

When she finished, she rejoined us. "Would you ladies like to catch lunch with us?" I asked. I directed the question at the Abigail Creature who I suspected had the ultimate say in such matters.

She pondered this for a moment before saying, "I _am _hungry, Mom."

"Okay. Let me shower and I'll be back in a few minutes. Come with me, Abigail," Emily said.

They walked off. "Cute kid," James said.

"That's not a kid, it's a creature," I said.

"Actually, you're right," Jeff Hardy said. I jumped out of my damn skin. Like a ninja, he'd come from out of nowhere. "Abby told me she's a huge fan of mine, so that makes her a Creature."

"Abigail," I corrected him automatically.

"Nah, it's cool, she told me I could call her Abby earlier."

I wondered how offended I should be by that. James tried to cover his amused thoughts, but he's a loud thinker. "Shut up," I told him.

Jeff looked at James sympathetically. "You'll learn how to block him from some things eventually," he told him. Jeff had been psychic for as long as he'd been psychotic, so basically most of his life, but James was much newer to his gifts.

"Sorry, Michael... It's just, I think Miss Abigail is giving you a hard time intentionally," James said.

"Yeah, I got that impression, too," I said.

"Would you like to come to lunch with us?" James asked Jeff.

"Sure, if y'all don't mind my brother coming along."

I groaned internally. It's not that I dislike Matt, but him and his ego joining us would make this outting even more crowded. I wanted to get to know Emily better, and having more people around would make that harder.

"Of course they don't mind!" Matt proclaimed as he joined us. "_Everyone _loves Matt Hardy."

As Emily and the Abigail Creature appeared, I wondered if this was true. Abigail didn't seem to be a fan of Matt's, so at least I wasn't the only one getting the cold shoulder anymore. She talked to Jeff excitedly, the two of them lost on their own planet, and I focused on Emily again.

"So, not your first gig, clearly," I said to her.

"Not even close," Emily said with a smile. "I've been wrestling since I was seventeen. I'm twenty-seven now."

"Seventeen is young to be working as a wrestler," James said with respect.

I caught something in her eyes that looked haunted. She shook it off so quickly, I wondered if I'd imagined it. "It turned out to be a great way for me to support myself. I never realized I could make money beating people up." She laughed, but a bit of that sadness still touched her eyes.

_What's your story? _I wondered. I was dying to know. It was driving me nuts not being able to just pull the information out of her head. It looked like I was going to have to find out her story the old fashioned way and spend time getting to know her. Looking at Emily, I decided that didn't sound so bad.

The Abigail Creature turned around and glared at me. I shuddered and reconsidered my views.


	2. Chapter 2

**TWO**

The Hardy Boys dominated the conversation at lunch. Actually, _Matt _dominated it. Jeff made random comments as he felt inspired to and spent the rest of his time making funny faces at Abigail. She may not be a normal kid, but she wasn't immune to Jeff's charms. I've yet to meet anyone, young or old, who really is. He's just a genuinely good person. Don't get me wrong. He's screwed up a lot in his life, but ever since Ruby was born, he's worked hard to stay sober and when he's sober, he's not an asshole. Abigail actually cracked several smiles at Jeff as he went out of his way to help her relax.

Matt managed to ask a million questions and still learned almost nothing about Emily. Her answers were vague unless she was talking about wrestling. She listed every promotion she'd ever worked for and I wondered if it wouldn't have been easier to list who she _hadn't _worked for. WWE was the only one I could think of that she didn't mention.

"So, Emily, where are you from?" Matt asked.

"Oh, you know, everywhere," Emily said. (See what I mean about her being vague?) "I move around a lot. I've called a lot of places home."

"So where do they bill you from?" I teased her. "Or are you billed as a wandering spirit?"

"Actually, Abstract is billed from the Land of Dreams," she informed me. I kind of loved that. Her character got cooler by the second. I tried to play a guessing game to figure out where she was actually from. Her accent adapted based on whoever she was talking to. With Matt and Jeff, she slipped into a slight drawl. With James, she sounded vaguely British. With me, there was no real accent, which seemed to be her default accent. It was impossible to guess her place of birth.

After we ate, we headed back to the arena. I had a match against Bram, something I was really looking forward to. I loved TNA, but with my undefeated streak, they often handed me baby matches I couldn't possibly lose or they had me cheat. I'm a heel. This is what heels do. Bram, however, would give me nothing short of an all-out hardcore brawl. That sounded like Heaven to me. A lot of people forget I'm actually very hardcore. I don't care if you bust me open with a chair, or throw me through a table, or hit me with Janis. I actually love all of those things, because the fans love seeing it. When you can read everyone's minds, it just seems wrong not to give the people what they want.

I knew Bram and I could have a great rivalry or at least one hell of a match. I'd begged Dixie to make it happen for three months before she agreed. For all you Internet Marks, no, Dixie Carter isn't _actually_ my aunt. She is, however, as overprotective of me as the fiercest aunt/mama bear in the world, and she hates seeing me get hurt, even if it's planned and staged. We bonded when she rescued my ass from the Island of Misfit WWE Rejects and helped me remember I _am _actually good at my job and why I love this business. I still don't know what it was about me that made Dixie latch on to the point that EC3 was born, but I'll _always _be grateful to that woman for saving me from possible self-destruction after the top company in the business decided I wasn't worth spending any more time on.

Matt and Jeff were facing the Revolution again. The fans were eager for this. It wasn't a bad dynamic, but since Khoya had tried to murder Jeff Hardy in front of a live audience by moving the steel steps to the wrong spot, the Revolution matches made me nervous. He almost succeeded. Don't let the dirtsheets or TNA's press releases fool you. It _was _a planned spot to write Jeff off for the U.K. shows, but Jeff was supposed to hit the ground, not the steps. I don't think any of us had ever been as scared as we were that night. Remember how I told you a lot of wrestlers are psychic? Well, just like there are good guys and bad guys in the world of wrestling, there are good psychics and there are bad psychics, and the bad ones have a thing for trying to murder the good ones. Jeff was the unofficial leader of what we liked to call Team Good. Khoya was on the _other_ side of things. Sometimes, good people played bad guys on TV, like me. Sometimes, it was the other way around. Occasionally, however, the real life battle between good and evil bled over into our storylines and it got hard to tell the difference between where storyline battles ended and real-life ones began.

I stopped getting lost in thought as Emily said, "Good luck tonight, James. I'm with Spud!"

James blushed. He was really shy and really unsure of himself at times, so random compliments threw him off. "Thank you, Emily," he said. "It's going to be a great title defense." He was facing TJ, or as you may know him, Storm's little bitch Manik. I like TJ, mind you, but his character was part of the scariest cult I have ever seen in wrestling. The Wyatt Family had nothing on the Revolution. Anyway, it was a match for the X Division Championship, which James currently held.

"You've got this, Spuddy!" Matt declared. He put his hand up for a high-five. James awkwardly returned the gesture, looking extremely uncomfortable.

Must_ he do be so in-your-face about everything? _James thought. I tried not to laugh, covering it by taking a sip of water from my bottle.

_Yes, James, he must, _I thought. _He's Matt Hardy, after all. The guy literally has a throne at home._ I projected the thoughts into his mind so he'd be able to hear them. James looked even more uncomfortable and I remembered how much he hated when I did that. _Sorry, _I added quickly, shooting him an apologetic look.

_It's alright, _James thought.

I nodded, knowing we were fine. James is forgiving to a fault. As we walked into the arena, I tried to focus on getting ready for my match, but I couldn't keep myself from watching Emily. She took Abigail's hand and squeezed it, then said, "Time to get ready. I'll see you boys later. Thanks for lunch. It was fun."

"We should do it again soon," I said. She smiled at me before leading her creature away. I watched them go, unable to take my eyes off of them.

"You like her, don't you, Michael?" James asked when the Hardys had left our side as well.

"I think I do, James," I admitted. "There's something about her…"

"The lovely quiet of her mind, perhaps? The mystery?"

"That's part of it… But that smile, James… God, she's got a great smile…"

He laughed. "I've never seen you smitten before."

"'_Smitten_?' Who the hell says '_smitten'_?"

"Are you denying that you are?"

"I just don't get the word choice. Is it a British thing?"

"You're deflecting."

"Yes, James, I am. Thanks for noticing."

"I think she's lovely. You should pursue this, Michael. She'll be good for you."

"You're getting ahead of yourself, James. No one said anything about relationships or pursuits or any of this."

"I don't have to be a mind reader to know what you're thinking when it comes to Emily."

"Is it that obvious?"

James smiled at me kindly, in his oh-so-James/Spud way that could melt even the coldest heart, and said, "Only to me, Michael. I just know you that well."

"I have no idea what I feel about her… But it's worth pursuing, right? I mean, what harm can come from getting to know her? Other than the possibility of the Abigail Creature biting me? Do you think her Creature-ness is contagious?"

He laughed. "I think the little one will warm up to you when she realizes you're a good person, and as far as her mother? I think she is _definitely _worth getting to know. Worst case, you've made a new friend, and best case? I get to be the best man at your wedding."

"James, I _just _met the woman."

"I said _best _case, didn't I? I'm not saying you should go buy the ring tonight. But if it works out, who knows?"

"I'd kill for your optimism. I always see worst case scenarios. Still, if the worst case is I make a new friend, then I guess that's not so bad."

"She's debuting tonight against Lauren and Ashley."

"She's fighting Angelina Love _and_ Madison Rayne? Wow, rough first match."

"No, she's interrupting their match to challenge them for the number one contender spot for the Knockouts title. I've been told it will turn violent, and Kia and Jess are both probably going to come out, too. I'm sure Gail will get in on that. Taryn will probably show them all up in the end, but Abstract is supposed to make a major splash tonight, so we'll see."

"I cannot wait to see that psycho lose her title. I can't _stand_ Taryn. She's vile. Her thoughts are horrifying, even to someone who's heard the thoughts of the worst of the worst." Taryn Terrell was a proud member of the dark side. Ironically, neither Kia nor Jess, the two scariest Knockouts ever, were evil. Kia was Awesome Kong, the scariest bitch in the Knockouts division, and Jess as Havok was right behind her, but both were downright sweet compared to Taryn. Like I said, things aren't always what they appear to be.

"I know. I can't hear her thoughts and she _still _scares me. Do you think Emily will get the title shot?"

"If Dixie believes in her enough, sure. Dixie likes giving people fair shots."

I spotted Thomas backstage. As Bram he was a scary lunatic with a vicious streak a mile long. Thomas wasn't much different, but he had been working with Team Good for a while now and I trusted him. "I'll catch you later, James. I want to make sure everything's set for our match tonight," I said.

"Good luck," James said. He walked away.

"Hey, Thomas," I greeted him.

"Michael!" He greeted me cheerfully. "Nothing like the promise of a bloody brawl to get me through an otherwise dull day."

"Yep. Do we have any idea what weapons we're getting tonight?"

"Chairs, tables, ladders, barbed wire, the usual."

"Awesome." I smiled. This was going to be fun. "Any trash cans?"

He looked offended that I had to ask. "Of _course _there will be at least one trash can! This is a _hardcore _match. There will be bats and hockey sticks and other random things, too. It's a street fight, after all."

"I know with the streak I'll end up going over. Do you mind?"

"Who _cares_ who goes over? It's about the _blood_, Mate." He grinned at me. "I'll beat you until you bleed for your precious streak, and then you can knock me out with some heel move or another and pin me."

"I'm not the only heel in this match."

"I'm not sure who's more hated, me or you. I mean, I went after Mickie James, sure, but you… _You_ went after _Spud_! You shaved his bloody head, literally, it was _bloody_. All I did was pick on a _girl,_ but Spud? _That _is unforgivable."

I laughed, but he was right. It was hard to tell who the fans would hate more. The fans really loved Mickie James and all. She was their little country darling. Spud, however, represented so much more to them. He was the little guy (literally) who could. He never gave up, no matter how badly he got knocked down. And now, he was a champion.

"It's me. _I'm _more hated," I decided. "Spud means too much to the people."

"You're probably right… Hey, _I'm t_he face in this match!" He laughed hard at that.

It _was_ pretty funny. "Come on, Mate," he said. "Let's go get ready to beat the hell out of each other tonight. Afterward, I'll buy you a pint."

_That _sounded good. "There's a plan I can get behind," I said. I followed him toward the locker room, wishing our match wasn't the main event purely because I was ready to have it already. Waiting for what I knew would be an awesome match was hard because I was so excited. It was too bad we couldn't have that drink _before _the match. I would have to settle for watching the other matches backstage as I waited for it to be our turn.


	3. Chapter 3

**THREE**

This taping was packed full of awesomeness. Although not aired live, we had a stream we could watch backstage, just for us. It started out with the BDC talking shit, because of all his skills, this was MVP's strongest. Kenny King stood by his side with Low Ki, known to non-wrestlers as Brandon. They were a stable thrown together seemingly out of anger, but I knew the truth. The current members of the BDC were all working for the Dark Side. Samoa Joe wasn't into that evil crap. It's almost impossible to turn one of the Samoans evil. He'd agreed to work with them to play double agent for our side, but Brandon had blown Joe's cover. He'd had to flee the company and had barely escaped with his life.

Our new double agent had shown up shortly after. Nelson still had a fucked-up shoulder, but he knew Brandon better than any of us and was determined to save him. Nelson, by the way, doesn't sound nearly as badass as his ring name, Homicide. Nelson was working hard to figure out if Brandon's actions were his own or if he'd truly had no choice. We all believed in Brandon prior to him turning on Joe. Now, no one was sure what to think.

Drew Galloway came out to interrupt the trash talking. Not only was Drew legitimately a member of Team Good, he was one of our best. I had nothing but respect for him for a number of reasons. Drew was doing much better away from WWE and that crappy 3MB gimmick. He had turned his release into something amazing and had taken the indies by storm, taking any title he set his eyes on and making everyone listen eagerly whenever he was handed a microphone. In spite of the fact that his lunatic ex-wife was TNA's Knockouts champion, he knew how desperate we were for help in our psychic battle, and he had signed with a company he'd sworn he never would. His focus had immediately turned to our Army of Assholes, the BDC. This is a prime example of what I was saying about storylines mirroring the real-life battle.

Anyway, I hadn't been listening to MVP. He liked to hear himself talk too much. He was one of the few guys we called by his ring name at all times. He legally changed his name for religious reasons while in prison, but he converted again after so he preferred MVP. Those who called him anything else were older WWE guys like Matt and Jeff, who sometimes still used his birth name, Alvin. Now that Drew was out there, I paid more attention. That man was a promo God. If they'd had forty-five minute promos of _him _on RAW instead of Triple H, no one would have been complaining.

"He's great," Lauren said from behind me. "Best decision Dixie's made in a long time." I hadn't heard her coming. She must have been blocking her thoughts.

"Agreed," I said. "Shouldn't you be with Wes?"

"He'll survive a few minutes without me... We need to talk, Michael."

When Angelina Love wanted to talk to you, you listened. "What's up?"

"I need you to do your thing. Taryn's up to something with Brooke. That girl's as green as they come psychically. Can you read her and see if Taryn's messing with her head?"

"Brooke's still blocked by Mark's shield. Even _I _can't get by that, at least not easily." Mark, better known as Bully Ray, had an extremely powerful psychic shield. Knowing Brooke was returning to TNA unaware of the psychic battle that had exploded, he protected her with it.

"She got by it somehow. I'm telling you, Michael, something's off with Brooke." She showed me her arm and I noticed she was bleeding a _lot_. There was literally a gaping hole in her arm.

"Jesus, why didn't you _tell _me you were hurt?" I asked. I focused on her arm. I pictured the wound in my mind as a throbbing red circle. Slowly, I turned the circle into a glowing white orb. Finally, it was gone. I opened my eyes and saw the wound had healed.

"Because I didn't want you to do _that_. You need your strength. It wasn't that bad."

"You were gushing blood."

"I'm dating a paramedic."

"Who you refused to go see. You're _welcome_."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine. Thanks for the assist. More importantly, _Brooke_ did this, Michael. She attacked me. She stuck some freaky ritual blade in my arm! We need to do something."

"I'll see what I can do. Taryn's still pretty fried psychically, but she could have handed Brooke off to someone else. We'll figure it out."

"Good. I need to get ready. New Girl is debuting tonight."

"Emily," I said automatically.

"Whatever, like I care. I have no idea who she is."

"She's gonna be great."

"So you think she's hot, clearly. Which side is she on?"

"I don't know if she's psychic."

"Did you read her yet?"

"Actually, I sort of can't."

"Really?" She raised an eyebrow at that. "She just got a little bit more interesting."

"Have you met her Abigail creature?"

"What's an Abigail creature?"

"A peculiar entity claiming to be a child."

"I didn't know she had a kid. She's been training with Tanea and Ashley mostly. I haven't seen much of her."

"No Beautiful People welcome hazing?"

"No Beautiful People." Her blocks dropped slightly and her sadness peaked through.

"Hey, Lauren, you know it's not your fault, right? Jamie had to leave. She needs time. Mark's taking care of her."

"She won't talk to me. Every time I call, she has Mark make up some excuse. She hates me, Michael. I should have protected her. She's the vulnerable one, the pure one... I'm the bitch and I keep us both safe. That's how we work."

"You couldn't have known..."

"I should have... Whatever. I need to go." She hurried off. I let her go. Lauren wasn't the sort who wanted comfort when upset. Just as Angelina and Velvet balanced each other, their real-life counterparts did the same. Without Jamie, Lauren was incomplete.

The night continued on. Matt and Jeff beat the Revolution. James beat TJ. It was all going great. Then the Knockouts came out. I watched Ashley and Lauren beat the hell out of each other. As Lauren went for the pin, music started to play. The arena lights turned purple. Through purple smoke, Emily entered.

Stiffler, beng Stiffler, got distracted. He watched Emily in awe. Her ring gear was black with purple embellishments, spirals and other subtle things giving the bikini-style top and bottom outfit hints of personality. A purple cloak trailed behind her. She looked amazing.

Emily reached the ring and seemed to consider the women in it for a moment before running at Lauren. She hit her with a spinning kick that knocked Lauren right out of the ring. She then picked Ashley up and tossed her unceremoniously over the top rope.

"Hello, ladies," Emily said in a cold voice. "My name is Abstract, and this is your notice that _I'm _the number one contender now."

"I don't _think _so!" Lauren snapped. She climbed back into the ring. She tried to attack Emily, but Emily was faster. The lights cut out. Moments later, Kia's music played as she appeared in the ring and chokeslammed Lauren. Kia's music cut off as she went to grab Emily, and Jess's started. Jess ran to the ring to attack Kia, saving Emily. Soon, Gail's music started and she went straight for Emily. Emily kicked her hard, then slammed Gail's head on the mat and smiled at her mysteriously. Ashley got back up, and Emily dove off the ropes onto the floor to knock her back down. Then she attacked Kia, managing to dive off the ropes and kick her in the face and knock her off her feet. Finally, only Jess remained standing. Jess glared at her, screamed, and attacked. Emily hit her back on the ringpost, but recovered quickly. She did a hurricanrana and took Jess down.

Taryn appeared at the stage entrance, staring at Emily. Slowly, she nodded, raising her title belt and pointing at Emily. Taryn's music played as she bounced backstage. The number one contender had just been established.

I was impressed. Emily had definitely made an impression. I couldn't wait to talk to her about it.

My match was finally set to begin. Thomas went out first. Then I heard it. _Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble. Trouble, trouble, trouble... _I had the best entrance music ever. It never failed to get me pumped.

I made my way out with George behind me. Tyrus as we called him was ready to protect me (see: cheat for me) but I put up a hand and sent him backstage. Tonight was about me and Thomas, and no one else. Thomas nodded, playing up Bram's approval of EC3 fighting his own fight.

"You can't wrestle!" The crowd chanted at me.

"Yes he can!" Other members of the crowd argued. I didn't even have to use my "I disagree/I'm very good" replies because recently, the fans had started to fight for me. That was unexpected and, quite frankly, pretty damn awesome.

The bell rang and I immediately picked up a hockey stick. I hit Thomas's head with it. He staggered back, but stayed on his feet and ran at me, knocking me into the ringpost. He got in a few kicks before backing away to grab the trash can. He hit me in the head with it. I stopped moving, trying to recover. As Thomas looked for another weapon, I grabbed a chair from under the ring and as soon as he turned, I brought it down against his head. His forehead cracked open. I smiled. I'd drawn first blood.

Thomas had wild eyes as he attacked me with a baton to the stomach. I doubled over and he hit me again. This happened several more times until I managed to grab the baton and tear it away from him. I picked up a board of barbed wire and stuck it in the corner. As is typical in wrestling matches, since I brought it in, I'm the one who ended up getting tossed onto it. That stopped me for a minute because, quite frankly, barbed wire fucking hurts. Wrestling may be "fake" but the injuries are real.

I recovered as quickly as I could. Thomas was pulling out a table. I waited for him to set it up before I dove over the ropes and sent both of us crashing through it. I got back up first.

_You good? _I projected into his head.

Thomas nodded ever so slightly. I smiled. This was the best match ever! I picked him up and tossed him back into the ring. I hit him with the Northern Lights suplex before pinning him. He somehow kicked out at two. I still say the ref, Brian Hebner, was counting awfully slow. I picked up the hockey stick I'd started out with and hit him several times before tossing it aside and hitting him with the One Percenter. This time, Brian counted at a more satisfactory rate. (I know it's hard to count higher than your IQ, Ref, but come on. Isn't being able to count to three a job requirement?) I successfully pinned Thomas without cheating.

I don't think I was ever so proud of myself. The match had been awesome. Thomas was everything I needed in an opponent and, for once, they let me beat him on my own. It was the ultimate high, especially with the excitement of the crowd's thoughts rushing through my mind.

This was a day I'd always remember. Initially, for that awesome match, and ultimately, because it was the day I met Emily and her little creature. I didn't know it yet, but my life was about to change.


	4. Chapter 4

**FOUR**

It was downpouring the next morning by the time I got out of the shower, which was odd. The forecast had predicted a sunny day, and there hadn't been a single cloud when I'd woken up. I looked out my first-floor window and spotted a very sour-looking, very wet Abigail Creature stomping through puddles and glaring at her mother.

Emily's expression was one of sadness. She had tears streaming down her face. I wished I could read her thoughts because I wanted desperately to fix whatever was making her sad.

"Mom, _stop it_!" Abigail cried out in annoyance.

"I'm sorry, Abby," Emily said so softly I barely heard her. She took a deep breath and.. _wait for it... _The rain stopped. I'm not saying it slowed down or became a light drizzle. It just _stopped_. The clouds vanished. It was sunny again.

Either Mother Nature was extremely bipolar, or Emily was the cause of the storm. Survey says... _ding, ding, ding! We have a psychic!_

"It's not your fault, Mom, so quit blaming yourself," Abigail said.

"I know, baby, I know... It's just... It was Frank." Emily looked like she might start that storm up again.

"He would never be okay with you being so sad."

I wondered what the hell they were talking about. What had Emily so upset that the sky literally wept with her? It takes a lot of power to cause a storm like that, let me tell you. She had to be over the edge emotionally.

I walked out of my hotel room and headed toward them, but Matt stopped me. "Did you hear?" He asked. Matt Hardy is not only the world's most frequent tweeter, he's also the world's biggest gossip.

"Hear what?" I asked.

"Air Ritz died."

Air Ritz was a fairly unknown high-flying indie wrestler from Orlando. He'd done some jobs with TNA in the past. The guy was good, but he was only twenty-one and was still a baby wrestler. His real name was Frankie Richmond. _Frank, _I thought.

"How?" I asked, too shocked to say anymore. The kid was so young...

"He had a jobber gig for WWE last night. Him and Carlos took a real beating from Kidd and Cesaro from what I hear, but he seemed fine. The two of them went out to celebrate afterward. Carlos found him dead in his bed this morning."

"Holy shit... Is Carlos okay?" Carlos was Frank's cousin. He was about six weeks older than him.

"I'd assume not. They think it was drugs."

"It wasn't."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "Why do you say that?"

"The kid was straightedge. He never touched a drug in his life. He wouldn't even pop a painkiller."

"Then what killed him?"

"Not what. _Who._"

"McMahon?"

"That's one possibility, although I don't see Vince wasting his time on a jobber. It could be the boss of Team Baddie."

"Why would he waste his energy on some kid from Florida?"

"Because he was more than he seemed?"

"It sucks, man... He was a baby."

"I know..." I remembered what drew me out of my room. "I need to go, Matt. I'll see you later."

"Okay, man, see you."

I headed toward Emily and her creature. I wasn't sure what to say to her, so I went with, "Freaky weather we're having this morning, huh?"

She tried to smile at me, but her eyes were still sad. "Hey, Michael," she said warmly.

"You okay?"

"Not really," she admitted. "A friend of mine passed away this morning..."

"I just heard. How did you know Frankie?"

"I helped train him when he wasn't even legal yet... I met him when he was still just a fan coming to shows. He was only fourteen the first time he smiled that goofy smile at me and told me he was a fan... and that my opponent could suck it." She giggled at the memory and I smiled. Back when I was part of FCW, Frankie was known as a fan who heckled wrestlers with no fear and always voiced his opinion, even if no one wanted to hear it. He was scruffy, goofy, and funny, but most of all, he was a super nice guy. He could never pull off being a heel alone. Carlos was helpful for that. He was a good guy, too, but he was tougher, darker, and clearly touched by pain at some point in his life.

_He was pure, _I thought. _Mr. Big Bad_ _probably couldn't turn him evil, so he killed the kid instead._

I was suddenly filled with anger. I wanted to go kill every member of Team Baddie. I wanted to resurrect Frankie. But I couldn't do either. This battle is about balance, and I couldn't kill them without killing all of Team Good, too. I also couldn't resurrect Frankie. I can heal someone who's almost completely dead, but that drains me so badly it can kill me. With a dead person, I can open a door to bring their soul back, but if I do that _and _heal their body, I will die. I know. It's killed previous incarnations of mine. What can I say? I have a bleeding heart.

"He was a great kid," I said.

The clouds came on so fast, I barely noticed them before the sky opened back up. Emily was crying again.

"Mom!" Abigail cried out. She covered her slip well by adding, "Let's go somewhere dry please?"

We were all getting soaked. I took a risk and pulled Emily into my arms, projecting the most soothing thoughts I could her way. I couldn't read her, but she could probably hear me. She relaxed. The rain slowed down until it finally stopped.

"So, you're a weather worker, huh?" I asked her.

"What do you mean?" She asked innocently. She was good. I almost believed her.

"Emily, let's agree not to lie to each other. You keep crying and making it rain. Storm bringing, weather working, whatever you want to call it, I know it's you." She tensed. "I can keep a secret, Em, really. I'm a open telepath. I keep a _lot _of secrets for people."

She sighed. "I usually control it better, but Frankie... He was just a kid, Michael. It hit me so hard, I couldn't stop the storms."

"It happens. I misfire all the time. Our emotions effect our abilities. It's normal." I looked at her very wet daughter. "Let's get you and your creature inside where it's dry. I'll buy you ladies breakfast."

"Thank you..."

"I am _not _a creature!" The Abigail Creature objected. Her frizzy hair was more out of control than normal and I suspected she was trying to turn me to stone with her glare.

"You're an Abigail, and I'm not quite certain what an Abigail is yet, so yeah kid, you are a creature." I smiled. Emily politely tried not to laugh. Abigail stared at my feet and I suddenly felt heat coming from my shoes.

"Ouch!" I cried out, jumping back. The creature was apparently pyrokinetic, as my sneakers had nearly started smoking.

"Abigail!" Emily scolded her. "You know better!" She looked horrified. "Please don't tell anyone Abby's... gifted."

"That's one word for it, and I won't..." I shook my head. "I'm mildly impressed, Abigail. Well played."

Abigail smirked at me. "I'm sorry, Michael," Emily said. "Abigail, say you're sorry."

"That would be lying," Abigail informed her. "Michael asked us not to lie to him."

I couldn't help it. I started laughing. "She's right," I said. "Let's agree that you won't set me on fire as long as I don't insult you, okay, Abigail?"

"Fine."

"Now let's go get some breakfast. After working all that magic, your mom's probably starving. Do you like pancakes, Abigail?"

"No."

In one word, she shut me down. What kind of kid doesn't like pancakes? Oh right, a creature.

"Abby likes eggs. She's big on omlettes. _I _like pancakes, though," Emily informed me.

"Then let's get some omlettes and pancakes," I said. I linked my arm through Emily's. It felt good to be so close to her. Even soaking wet, she smelled like lavender and honey. She relaxed against me as we started to walk away. I tried to offer a hand to the creature, but she rolled her eyes and walked beside her mother instead. This kid was _not _going to make things easy on me. Her affection could not be bought with omlettes. I'd need to try harder.

_Why do you care if she likes you? _I asked myself. I realized almost immediately that I cared because, in spite of being a pain in my ass, Abigail was special. I wanted to get to know her, and I wanted to protect her. I also really liked her mother, and if I wanted Emily in my life, Abigail was part of the package.

We ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant. James spotted us and joined us. Abigail lit up when she saw him. "Hi James!" She said.

"Hello, Miss Abigail," James greeted her. He sat beside her. With James to distract her, Abigail stopped glaring at me. I inched closer to Emily as he said, "I heard about Frankie. It's awful, positively awful!"

I wondered if Emily could make it rain indoors. I didn't want to find out, so I put my hand on her arm to ground her. She looked at me and relaxed again.

"He was a great guy," Emily said.

_Was it... Them? _James thought toward me.

_I think so, _I thought back. _I'll have to check things out later, but it feels like someone did this to him._

"You're being rude," Abigail said. "Why do you two do that when you can just talk to each other out loud?"

"Abby!" Emily scolded her. "Not now."

"It's James, Mom. We can trust James."

"She's right," I said quickly. "No one's more trustworthy than our very own Rockstar Spud. James, they know about me."

"Ah. Psychic, then?" James asked.

"Extremely," Emily admitted. "Please, no one can know."

"Of course. I'm sorry for being rude, Miss Abigail," James said. "I wasn't aware you knew of the battle."

"I just want Abigail left out of all that," Emily said. "It isn't safe..."

"You're on the run," I said suddenly. "You have your blocks sky high because you're hiding from someone. Don't worry. I won't pry. I was just wondering why I couldn't read you. That's not normal for me."

"I had some trouble in the past," Emily said. "That's why no one can know about me, and especially about Abby."

"Your secret is safe with us," James promised.

"What was James asking you?" Abigail asked me.

"He wanted to know if Frankie's death was an accident," I said truthfully. "And honestly? I don't believe that it was."

"Why would they hurt him? He wasn't a big name, and as far as I know, he wasn't even involved," James said.

"He was psychic," Emily said. Tears threatened to fall. I took her arm again. "He took a blow to the head two years ago and it unlocked. He started having visions... I tried to help him control it. I don't usually out myself, but the poor kid thought he was losing his mind."

"He was good," Abigail said. "Too good. If he couldn't turn him, he had to kill him." To my shock, Abigail started to cry, a little at first, then harder. The sprinkler above our table went off. (Good thing we'd finished eating.) Soon, every sprinkler in the place went off. People cried out and fled the room, but not before they all got soaked.

Like a ninja, Jeff Hardy appeared, pulling the creature into his arms. The sprinklers turned off as she sobbed into his shirt.

"Wow, this place needs to get their system checked!" Matt loudly proclaimed. "I see no fire! I demand a refund! And dry cleaning!" He began rambling in Matt fashion, demanding answers and attention.

Matt's distraction kept people from noticing what he and his brother clearly had, that Abigail caused the sprinklers to go crazy. "You okay, Abby?" Jeff asked.

She nodded, snuggling against him. "I'm sorry, Mom," she said.

"Like mother, like daughter," Emily said. "It's okay, baby." She looked worried. I had to wonder who she was running from, and decided I was determined to help her hide. If TNA was a safe place, maybe she wouldn't have to leave. I really didn't want to think about the possibility of her leaving.


	5. Chapter 5

**FIVE**

Three days later, I stood in a cemetery with several indy guys as well as nearly everyone from TNA. Team Good and Team Baddie have to keep up appearances, so that means when one of us dies, we _all _pay our respects. It's not easy living a double life, one public and one trapped in an unending psychic battle, but we're all very good at it.

The smug looks on the faces of MVP, Brandon, and Kenny told me the truth. This was no accident. I could see Nelson had the same expression, but his thoughts gave him away. He was as devastated as the rest of us. Luckily, Nelson's blocks were strong. Most people couldn't read his mind the way I can.

Storm stood near the coffin with a somber expression on his face. His thoughts said he was celebrating the win for Team Baddie, but I sensed something else there. I was only hearing what he _wanted _me to hear.

Bobby Lashley was bawling his eyes out. It was rare to see emotion from him, but he couldn't hide it. Frankie loved to heckle Lashley, and he always went right back at him. He'd loved the kid. We _all _had.

James was crying quietly beside me. I squeezed his shoulder. Emily stood nearby, holding Abigail in her arms. The creature showed no emotion whatsoever.

Jeff wore his emotions on his sleeve as usual. He was crying almost as hard as Lashley. Matt was trying to keep a calm exterior, but his thoughts were devastated. Bobby Roode was holding Dixie, who cried harder than anyone else.

It was hard to watch everyone in so much pain. Eric Young was shaking. I suspected he was trying to hold his emotions back, but that little ball of energy couldn't handle this alone. Eric was literally a source of energy. He was having a nervous breakdown after a brutal, unthinkable attack from Team Baddie that left him fried and unable to function. (That heel turn? Yeah, he was being controlled at the time.) A magical double (see: doppleganger) had fought his matches ever since because Eric couldn't function, but he was here now. Bobby pulled Eric into the hug with Dixie as he apparently realized how close to breaking his friend was.

Many of the Knockouts had formed a circle. Christy was trying to smile, but her eyes were sad. Next to her, Tanea stood. She had Mike Knux behind her, holding her with strong arms. The big teddybear was sobbing loudly as he did this. Ashley wept openly, unable to hide her emotions. I spotted Jessie, or ODB, and was surprised to see her. Then again, she'd loved Frankie. She wasn't on our roster anymore, but she was mourning with us. Santana, better known as Brittany, had not returned, but she was off winning titles and staying as far away from Team Baddie as possible. She'd run for her life after quitting their side. Mickie James had come out for the funeral and Nick stood over her protectively as she went back and forth between chatting with the girls and crying. Gail Kim stood strong and emotionless as she held the girls together. Gail Kim was the ultimate badass.

Jess (Havok, not Jessie) was standing with Kia. I noticed Sami Callihan beside Jess, his arm wrapped protectively around her waist. I wasn't shocked, because the NXT guys knew Frankie as well as we did, but no one else had dared show up to the funeral. Then again, Sami was Jess's boyfriend, and he was a rebel.

Away from the Circle of Knockouts, Lauren was sobbing into her wolf's arms. Wes radiated calm, trying to soothe her and to keep his beast in check. Eddie was by his side. He radiated rage. I suspected _his _wolf was having a harder time staying calm. Oh, did I forget to mention that the wolves actually _are _werewolves? If you see them wrestle live, it's kind of obvious. They try to hide it, though, because lycanthropy is taboo in wrestling. People think that lycanthropes are too dangerous in the ring. I had no issue with either of them because I knew they had it under control. In fact, the two of them had recently started reaching out to other wrestlers who were trying to hide their lycanthropy to see if they could help them learn to control it better. They wanted to work toward a world where the discrimination ended.

I was surprised to see Mark and Jamie rushing into the cemetery. Devon was with them. Mark looked furious, and Jamie looked... _different_. Gone was the innocent (well, sort of) Velvet Sky, and she'd been replaced by a badass motorcycle chick with multicolor streaks in her hair. I knew why Jamie had walked away, but I hadn't realized she'd had a meltdown.

_Bloody hell, _James thought at the sight of her.

"Exactly," I agreed aloud. _But damn, she wears it well, _I added silently.

Jamie flung her arms around Lauren. "I'm sorry I haven't been here... But we couldn't miss this," she said. "It's Frankie..." her voice cracked slightly. Mark pulled her against himself to comfort her.

"When I find out who did this, they're dead," Mark declared.

Devon said nothing. He was the quieter of the two, and right now, he had no words. If he did, they probably would have been something along the lines of, "Oh my brother, oh testify!"

I spotted Cesaro standing alone. That surprised me. What the fuck was he doing here? I searched his head for answers.

_...my fault? Did we do this to him? What went wrong? Did I hurt him in the match? He's just a kid... God... _And then the thoughts were no longer in English. Although none of us were sure which side of the battle Cesaro was on, that was genuine grief in his head. He hadn't done this.

"Michael?" Emily called. I looked at her.

"Sorry, what?" I asked.

"I asked if you were okay."

"Oh. Yeah, as okay as I can be. And you?"

"About the same."

As the actual service began, we all stopped speaking. I spotted Carlos next to the coffin. He showed no emotion, but his thoughts were frantic. They were rushing through his mind so quickly, I couldn't understand them. It was an awful ball of white noise and static in my head, and I winced because it physically hurt to hear it. I wasn't trying to listen in, either. He was just thinking so loudly, I couldn't shut it out.

"Are you alright?" James whispered to me. I shook my head slightly.

Mark saw my distress. He came over and put a hand on my shoulder. It looked innocent, but it was actually the only way to help me. His shield shot up around me and the world quieted down until all I heard was the priest and the sound of people crying. Have I mentioned that Mark's shield is fucking _awesome_?

After the service ended, Mark let me go. "You okay now?" He asked.

I nodded. "Thanks," I said. "I was kind of screwed back there."

"No problem. I gotta get back to Jamie and Devon." He walked away.

I knew the shield would hold for a bit, so I walked over to Carlos. "Hey, man," I greeted him. "I got nothing but cliches for you right now, but I'm here if you need me, okay?"

"Thank you," Carlos said numbly.

Emily joined us, drragging the Abigail Creature behind her. "We're so sorry about Frankie," Emily told Carlos.

Abigail wouldn't look at him. Instead, she inched closer to me. _That _was a first. I didn't touch her for fear of making her run, but I shifted so she was right next to me. She leaned against me and I tried to psychically soothe her.

"He appreciated everything you did for him, Em. I don't know if he ever told you that," Carlos said.

"I knew," Emily assured him.

"Oh, Carlos, darlin', my heart is absolutely broken!" Dixie drawled as she joined us. "This is just unthinkable!" She embraced him. In Dixie's arms, Carlos dropped his guard a bit and tears formed in his eyes.

"Thank you, Ma'am. You and your people meant so much to him," Carlos told her.

Dixie looked into his eyes and said, "Frankie _was _one of my people. So are you. If you need anything, Darlin', I'm here."

Carlos nodded. Emily pulled him into her arms. That was when I saw how badly Dixie was trembling. Her face and voice were calm and collected, but she was a mess. I looked at Abigail, still leaning on me, and wasn't sure how she'd react if I went to Dixie. The creature looked up at me and nodded, moving aside.

I took Dixie's hand and led her away. "You okay?" I asked, although I knew the answer.

"He was a baby, Michael..." She whispered. Her tears returned. "He was only a baby..." To everyone who says that Dixie Carter doesn't care about her people, go fuck yourselves. This was breaking her.

"I know," I whispered soothingly. I held her as she wept, shaking in my arms even after she'd cried out her last tear.

"Why?" She finally asked. "Why would they kill him?"

"You know?"

"Frankie was as straightedge as they came. He never would have overdosed, and ever since these abilities started unlocking in me, I'm learning to look at things like this more closely." Dixie had been psychically awakened shortly before James. She was still new to a lot of it, but she adapted well beause Dixie Carter never backed down from a fight.

It shouldn't have shocked anyone that Dixie was psychic. She was our Stephanie McMahon, afterall, only not evil or skanky. It _did _shock everyone that James was. They'd all believed our Rockstar Spud was as mortal as they came. Even _I _had. Then the head of Team Baddie had briefly gotten into my head. We were in NYC doing a taping at the Manhattan Center and I almost attacked James for trying to stop my attack on Rhino after Rhino face turned. In reality, Rhino had just quit Team Baddie, and his former boss was pissed. It wasn't scripted that way, and although I got control when I saw the terror in his eyes and stopped myself, James was so scared his abilities unlocked. The poor guy thought he'd gone nuts and went running to Jeff for help because he figured if anyone wouldn't label him insane, it was Jeff Hardy.

"You'll be okay, D," I told her.

"I can't understand this..."

"I know. I'll get to the bottom of it, and when I do, I'll make them pay."

"Michael, what about Carlos? Is he in danger?"

"I hope not. I'll keep an eye on him as much as I can."

"Save him, Michael. Promise me you'll protect him."

I looked into her eyes and said, "I'll do everything I can to protect Carlos from them. I promise, Dixie." She relaxed slightly. I became determined then, because I _never _break a promise.


	6. Chapter 6

**SIX**

After the funeral, Emily and I started to spend more time together. She and her Creature stayed close to me. Emily was helping me look into Frankie's death, along with Jeff and Ken. We had our work cut out for us. The bad guys had covered their tracks well.

Things were changing. Jamie came back to TNA and began a storyline feud with Lauren. Because of the demand for his abilities, Mark started splitting his time between TNA and WWE, but Jamie stayed with us. Since the man who had made her run screaming from TNA, Dan "Austin Aries" Solwold was still on our roster, I made it my personal mission to keep an eye on her. After his attack on Jamie, Aries had been killed and a doppelganger had been created. Somehow, the leader of Team Baddie had taken control of that vessel and infused it with Aries on Steroids. I don't mean physical steroids, but psychic ones. He'd become the deadliest guy on the roster next to Khoya, and none of us could do anything about it.

The thing is, Jamie had changed more than her appearance while she was gone. She wasn't afraid of Aries. She stared him down and refused to let him intimidate her. Amusingly, it appeared that as he waited for the proverbial "other shoe" to drop, the one thing Aries was afraid of was Miss Velvet Sky. She was enjoying letting him stew in his fear.

"Son of a bitch," Jeff drawled under his breath, getting my attention.

"What is it?" I asked. He was looking over a journal in what had once been Frankie's room.

"He knew..." Jeff looked torn between crying and cursing some more.

"Knew what?" Ken asked, leaning over Jeff's shoulder.

Jeff took a deep breath and started reading aloud. "_Tonight, I make my WWE debut as a jobber for Claudio and TJ. I'm excited, but the nightmares, visions, hallucinations, whatever they are won't stop. This little voice keeps telling me, 'they're coming for you.' I feel it with every bone in my body. Carlos and I are in danger. They want our power. They want to suck out my soul and consume me. They want to recruit him. With his ability to control fire and even create it, he's useful to them, and he's always been darker than me. I have visions and a couple of tricks up my sleeves, but Emily says I'm pure energy. I can fuel them and they need that, but they know I'll never go darkside and turn heel on my peeps. I can't do that. I think they're going to kill me." _ Jeff paused. He was crying. Ken put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Ken took over reading aloud. _"Tonight, they'll make their move. If the things I'm seeing are right, TJ has already been given the job. I don't know how he's going to do it, but he's going to steal my powers. He's going to absorb my lifeforce, and I'm going to die. Knowing this, I shouldn't go, but if I don't, we'll never have another chance to make it to WWE. I can't give up my dream, and I can't deny Carlos his. Besides, this entire thing is nuts. It can't be literal. Can it? And even if I don't go, I know they will come for me. Fuck it. If tonight is my swan song, I'm going out singing loud."_ Ken bowed his head. "Ah, Kid... If he'd just come to us..."

"He was right. They were going to kill him either way," I said. I felt numb. We'd known he was murdered, but to see it in his own words... I wished he'd asked for help. Could we have saved him?

Jeff threw the journal across the room. It was rare to see him get that pissed off. "You gonna be okay, man?" I asked.

"TJ did this," Jeff said. "Fucking Tyson Kidd! I want him to pay."

"We all do, but we can't touch him," Ken said. "He's WWE. We don't have access to him."

An idea occurred to me and I grinned. I pulled out my phone and dialed. "What's wrong?" A voice answered, knowing I'd only call him in an emergency.

"Hey, Joe," I said. "How would you like to help us get some justice for Frankie?"

I could practically see our Samoan friend foaming at the mouth. "You know I liked that kid. What can I do?"

"It was TJ, Joe. He killed him and absorbed his powers."

Joe was silent for a full minute, which said more than words ever could. Finally, he said, "I'll take care of it."

Three nights later, at a house show in front of a packed crowd, Samoa Joe broke Tyson Kidd so thoroughly, it should have killed him. Being one of his master's top bitches saved his life, but TJ will almost definitely never wrestle again. My only regret is now Nattie's stuck caring for him. Nattie is one hundred percent on Team Good, but you can't help who you fall in love with.

Emily and I watched the footage on Youtube. She leaned against me and I held her as we watched Joe seek revenge for the murder of a kid we'd all loved. When it was over, Emily shocked me by kissing me. After a split second of shock, I kissed her back. The energy between us was unlike anything I had ever felt before. She felt so natural in my arms, so soft and vulnerable suddenly. She wasn't what I expected, but so much better. I never wanted our lips to be apart.

Eventually, the kiss ended, as kisses do, but I could still feel her on my lips. I had to catch my breath. "I... Wow," I said lamely.

"I needed to feel something that was good after all that bad," Emily explained. She looked at me shyly. "I hope that's okay?"

"Okay isn't the word for it." I pulled her back against me and kissed her again because I _needed _her lips. When I say I never felt like this before, it's not a cliche. I am totally serious. The physical part was great, but the psychic and emotional connection was so intense I can't put it into words. I've only ever connected that much to one other person in my life, and it was James.

Emily and I finally stopped kissing when we remembered the Abigail Creature was asleep in the other room in the suite. We spent the night on the couch watching television together because neither of us could sleep after that.

Needless to say, things began changing. The next morning, Emily asked Abigail, "How would you feel if I told you I was seeing someone?"

Abigail scowled at me. "If you hurt my mom, I'll hurt _you_," she told me.

I tried not to laugh because I was certain she was deadly serious and she'd find a way to do it. "Abby!" Emily scolded her.

"It's okay," I said quickly. "It's good that she is so protective of you, Emily."

"I can't talk her out of it, but I can make sure no one hurts her," the Abigail Creature informed me.

"That's the closest you'll come to getting her approval," Emily told me with a slight smile.

"I'll take it," I said happily. I loved seeing Emily smile. It made me forget all the crap and destruction around us for a little while.

Naturally, things didn't stay perfect for long. My new girlfriend and her Creature moved in to my place so they didn't need to pay for hotel suites anymore. We didn't sleep together. It was too soon, and we both decided having sex with her Creature so close by was wrong. We kissed and laughed and talked for hours. It was the best I'd gotten to know another person in ages. This went on for about a month. Then, as is typical for psychics caught up in a battle between good and evil, everything fell apart.

My phone started ringing at four in the morning. I knew it couldn't be good news. "Hello?" I answered in a groggy state.

"Michael..." The voice on the other end of the line was crying.

"Jamie?" I asked. "What's wrong?"

"It's Lauren... She was supposed to meet Carlos tonight, to check on him and get a status report on what side he was on... She never checked in."

"I'm sure she's fine," I said, although I wasn't. A thousand possibilities raced through my head.

"She was worried they'd recruited him, Michael. She told me he's been acting really strange and his energy is off... I didn't want her to go alone, but it's Carlos, you know? Neither of us thought he'd hurt her."

"We don't know that he did."

"She isn't even answering Wes, Michael. I'm scared. I can't shake the awful feeling in the pit of my stomach."

I knew how she felt. "Where's Mark?"

"He's here. I called him first, and he told me I'd better call you."

"We'll find her, Jamie. I promise." I meant that. I just hoped we'd find her _alive_.

Emily came into the living room and looked at me as I hung up. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"Jamie called. Lauren's missing. She was meeting Carlos."

"Crap."

"Exactly."

"How can I help?"

"I'm going after her. Just stay with Abigail and I'll call you when I know something."

She looked like she wanted to protest, but instead she nodded. "Be careful, Michael," she said. "I love you."

It was the first time she said it to me, and suddenly, I didn't want to leave her. I knew Lauren needed me, so I forced myself to be responsible. "I love you, too, Emily," I told her. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her.

I closed my eyes and did my magic trick, opening a portal right in front of her. Emily looked impressed. "You're full of surprises," she said.

"Yes I am," I said with a smile before jumping through. I focused all of my energy on Lauren and hoped I'd be able to find her.

I spotted her a few feet from where I landed as the portal closed. Lauren was bleeding badly. The sight of Carlos holding the knife that had wounded her broke my heart. This was it. He'd gone darkside. Could I save him?

I hoped so, but first I needed to focus on saving Lauren. She looked at me with pleading eyes. _Don't hurt him, _she thought at me. _He's still in there._

_How bad are you hurt? _I sent back. Carlos still hadn't seen me.

_I'll live. _She was being optimistic. I wasn't so sure the blood loss wouldn't kill her.

I had to get to her without hurting Carlos. If there was any chance of saving him, I needed to try. I struggled to think of a plan, but when Lauren's eyes rolled into the back of her head, I knew I was out of time.

_Fuck it, _I thought. Who needs a plan when you can fly into things blind? I walked right up to Carlos and said, "Hey, man, how's it going?" Then, before he could react, I knocked him unconscious with my strongest spell just so I wouldn't have to hurt him.

I wanted to bring him with me so I could talk some sense into him, but Lauren was dying. I had to save her first. Choices, choices... I picked Lauren up and opened a portal. I tried to get to Jamie, but someone followed us. I changed direction and we ran straight into Brandon and MVP. I rushed to portal away from them and hit a brick wall of energy. Before anyone could reach us, I portaled again and went to Wes.

We landed at his feet. Wes was practically wolfing out before my eyes. He pulled Lauren into his arms. I wanted to heal her, but I was exhausted. I'd portaled in too many directions too quickly to try and rescue her and not run into the Army of Assholes and now I could barely stand up. I can fling other people through portal loops all day long, but actually travelling through that many myself drains my energy fast.

"You're a paramedic," I said. "Can you save her?"

Wes looked at me and understood. "You overdid it?" He asked.

"Understatement."

"I've got her. Go crash in my guest room."

"I should go-"

"You'll never make it home, Michael. Go." He handed me a cup of soda knowing I'd need the sugar and sent me on my way. I downed the soda quickly as my body shook. I crawled into the bed and immediately blacked out.

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **__I'm sorry I took so long to post this chapter. I have a lot of fics in progress right now and two of them demanded I finish them first. I'm going to pay more attention to this one now. I hope you're enjoying it! I appreciate your reviews!_


	7. Chapter 7

**SEVEN**

I woke up tucked into bed with Wes standing over me. "What time is it?" I asked as I tried to clear my head.

"Eleven," Wes told me.

I remembered why I was there. "Is Lauren okay?"

"She's fine."

"Fine? Wes, I know you're good, but-"

"She's all healed up now. Don't worry about her. How are you feeling?"

"Better. I'm starving, though."

"I figured you would be. I made breakfast. Come on out."

He left and I hit the bathroom to make myself slightly more presentable. My clothes were wrinkled, but I used some mouthwash to chase away morning breath and I brushed my hair. I headed out and saw Eddie had joined us. He was whispering to Lauren who looked exhausted but miraculously healed. Wes must have called in a healer because there was no way normal medicine fixed her up that quickly.

"You okay?" I asked her.

She looked at me and for what may have been the first time ever, she let her guard down completely. Her thoughts flooded my mind, too crazed to make any sense. She flung her arms around me.

"Thank you," she said. She was crying. I had never seen Lauren cry before. "If you hadn't come for me, I'd be dead..."

"No big," I said.

"Liar." She sounded more like herself as she pulled herself together. "You nearly burnt yourself out."

"I'm okay. I just needed to sleep it off."

"You risked your life for me."

"That's what I do. I'm okay, Lauren, really."

"I... I trusted that little shit..."

Lauren was herself again. I might have laughed, except I knew how she felt. "I know. We all did. It might not be his fault. They killed Frankie. They left him vulnerable, and I guess he wasn't strong enough to resist on his own."

"When we save his dumb ass- and we _will_\- I'm going to kill him."

"That might defeat the purpose of saving him."

"I'm entitled to my rage."

"I never said you weren't."

We both shut up as food was placed in front of us. I immediately began stuffing my face. To my surprise, so did Lauren. I'd never seen a _Beautiful Person _shovel food down her throat that fast. Hell, Lauren barely ate at all. I looked at Eddie.

"She's hungry," Eddie supplied helpfully.

"Really? I thought she was just practicing for the Nathan's hotdog eating contest," I said. "She could give the champion a run for his money."

"Shut up, Asshole," Lauren snapped at me. "Last night took a lot out of me, alright?"

"Hey, it's not a criticism. It's nice to see you aren't anorexic."

My phone began to ring and I saw Emily's number. I immediately picked up. "Em, I'm okay," I said. "I'm sorry I didn't call. I overdid it and blacked out. I'm at Wes's place."

"Thank God..." Emily sighed in relief. "Is Lauren okay?"

"Yeah, I got her out... I have bad news, though... Carlos ate the cookies and joined the darkside."

Emily cursed. "He's grieving. He doesn't know what he's doing."

"I know. He's my next project."

"Are you coming home?"

"In a little bit. I'm just getting some food in my system, then I'll have Eddie or Wes drive me home."

"I've got you," Eddie said.

I nodded a thank you at him. "I'll see you soon, Em." I paused, then added, "I love you."

"I love you, too." She hung up.

Lauren raised an eyebrow at me. "Love?" She asked.

"Yeah. So?" I asked.

"Isn't that a little quick?"

"Says the girl who got engaged to a guy a few weeks after they started dating."

"Shut up. That's different. We've known each other for years."

"Right. Don't judge the Pot, Kettle."

"Bite me."

A little while later, I had enough energy to leave the house. Eddie drove me home. "Is she really okay?" I asked in the car.

"She's traumatized," Eddie said. "Lauren really cares about Carlos. She figured even if he had turned, she could reason with him. She never thought he'd try to kill her."

"We'll save him."

"I hope you're right."

"I'm _always _right. I'm a Carter." I flashed him my best kayfabe smile.

He rolled his eyes. "You're an idiot," he said with a laugh.

We reached my house and I thanked him for the lift. He left as Emily greeted me at the door. From a dark corner of the living room, the Abigail Creature glared at me. I wondered how I'd offended her this time.

"You're stupid, Michael," she told me bluntly. "You don't do stuff like that alone. Next time, bring back-up."

If I didn't know better, I would have thought she'd been worried about me. "I'll take that advice to heart, oh wise Abigail Creature," I promised her.

She kicked my shin. "That's for being a jerk!"

"Abigail!" Emily cried. "What did I tell you about kicking people?"

"It's Michael. He doesn't count," the Creature insisted.

"Apologize right now."

"It's okay, Em. She's just training to become a wrestler, right Abigail?" I asked.

The creature smiled smugly. "Right," she said sweetly.

"I swear, I give up!" Emily declared.

The rest of the day was spent with Emily insisting on taking care of me. I gave her details about what had happened and we tried to come up with a plan to save Carlos. It wasn't looking great, but we had to try.

At some point, Emily curled up in my arms as we discussed our million and one plans and fell asleep. I held her, letting her rest. I liked how she felt in my arms. I sort of wanted to stay in that moment for eternity. She looked so peaceful while she slept, free from the cares of the world for just a little while.

She woke up a short time later and was shaking. "You okay?" I asked.

"Michael, I have to tell you something," she said urgently.

"Okay, what's up?"

"Abby is very special."

"I know she is."

"More than you know. She's incredibly strong, and the bad guys want her. If they realized where she was, they would do _anything _to capture her. Promise me something."

"Anything."

"No matter what, keep her away from anyone from WWE who she doesn't already know."

"What are you worried about?"

"Her father."

I was surprised. Emily had never been willing to discuss Abigail's father before. "Who is he?" I asked.

"I can't tell you. He doesn't know about her, and I can't risk him finding out..."

"Did he hurt you, Emily? Is that why you stay away from WWE?"

"No, God no... He's a good guy, Michael. He's just surrounded by bad ones, and they'll hurt her."

"And he's a WWE guy?"

"He's _very_ invested in WWE, yes."

"I won't tell anyone who he is, Em, you know that."

"I know. I just can't risk someone figuring it out. I will never say it out loud."

I knew this was the most I was going to get out of her. I tried not to obsess about who Abigail's father might be. Was he a wrestler? A member of the creative team? A random security guard? She'd said he was very invested in the company. Could it be Triple H? Everyone knew he got around. Hell, I'm pretty sure even Stephanie knew she'd married a manwhore. It was entirely possible...

"Michael... Promise me you'll help me protect her," Emily said.

"I swear I will," I told her. "The truth is, I've grown fond of your creature. I won't let anyone harm her."

Emily nodded, finally calmer. She kissed me goodnight and went back to sleep. I tried not to obsess too much about our conversation. The important thing was keeping Abigail safe. Her father wasn't a factor, seeing as how he didn't even know she existed. I lied to myself and insisted it could stay that way, even as a sense of coming trouble threatened to overwhelm me.


	8. Chapter 8

**EIGHT**

Two days later, I woke up to the rather frightening sight of the Abigail Creature staring at me from the foot of my bed. I let out a very undignified sound at the sight of the tiny ninja I hadn't heard coming and sat up.

"Um... Can I _do_ something for you, Abigail?" I asked.

She seemed to be debating whether or not to tell me what was on her mind. She perched herself on the edge of my bed and said, "James is in trouble."

I was instantly awake. "What trouble?" I asked. I didn't stop to wonder why she knew this when I didn't. I _always_ knew when James was in trouble.

"They blocked you," she answered my unasked question. "They didn't think to block _me_. And I _know _stuff. Get up. He's hurt, Michael. It's... _bad_."

I didn't need to be told twice. I was ready to run out the door in my pajamas. Abigail rolled her eyes and tossed me my clothes. She stepped outside and left me to change.

When I got to her, Emily was with her. She'd also changed in a hurry. "I'm going with you," she said.

"Me, too," Abigail said.

"No, Abby. It's too dangerous."

"Mom, it's _James_."

"I said no. You're staying with Jamie until we come back. She already agreed to watch you."

Abigail looked like she wanted to argue, but she nodded. I was worried. That had been _way_ too easy. What was the Creature plotting?

We took her to Jamie before rushing off to rescue James. I focused all of my energy on the minions since James was blocked from me. I tried to read their thoughts from a distance. I was striking out until I caught a snippet from Storm.

_Poor, pathetic little Spud,_ he thought over and over. It was odd that I caught Storm of all people. His shield was ridiculously strong. _You walked into the wrong rodeo, Spud, _he thought suddenly. _Saddle up, Cowboy._

I told Emily what I was hearing. "That's... odd," she said finally. We were driving through a fairly abandoned part of town when she proclaimed, "Stop!"

I slammed on the brakes. "What? What is it?" I asked her.

"Look!" She motioned toward a set of three attached storefronts. They appeared to be empty.

"Yeah, so?" I asked.

"No, look _up_, Michael!" She pointed at the awning.

I read the signs aloud. "Lenny's Bagels... Cheese Please... Cowboy's Rodeo Burgers- oh shit!"

"It can't be a coincidence. Storm loves making bad puns at inappropriate moments."

I threw the car in park in the middle of the street and jumped out. There was no time to waste with parallel parking at that point. Emily and I ran inside. Although the place looked abandoned, I could hear the thoughts of several members of Team Baddie. It was MVP's loud-ass voice speaking aloud, however, that gave away the fact that they were beneath us.

I texted Jeff our location. He was also out trying to find James. Wes and Lauren were with him. Wes had insisted because we knew James was hurt and he was a trained medical professional. Lauren had come along because it was _James_, and even _she _couldn't leave our Rockstar Spud in danger. He was too loved by everyone at TNA. Taking James definitely meant shots had been fired by Team Baddie. None of us were going to stand for that.

Emily and I crept down into the basement silently. MVP was laughing. "Look at this little bitch!" He proclaimed. "He's such a pussy."

_Takes one to know one, MVPussy, _I thought, adopting one of the New York City crowd's chants for him. _And Spud's more of a man that you'll _ever _be._

Emily squeezed my hand. I knew we needed to wait for our moment, but it was hard. James was so close, and he was hurt. I could feel him, even through the block they'd created. Abigail wasn't wrong about how bad it was.

I spotted him and nearly smited everyone on sight. James had daggers pinning his wrists to the floor. The bad guys were gathered around laughing at him as he struggled to free himself. His head was gushing blood. He was so badly beaten, I barely recognized him, but he was still fighting like hell to get out of this alive.

_I'm here, Buddy. Don't give up. I'll get you out of this, _I thought. I sent the thought as hard as I could toward him and hoped it would somehow break through the blocks around his mind.

Emily looked like she was going to kill them all herself. It was my turn to squeeze her hand. We were massively outnumbered. Even if I started throwing them all through portals, someone would have time to kill James, and I wasn't about to let that happen.

I looked at the assembled team of bad guys. MVP, Kenny, Brandon, and Nelson stood close together, cracking jokes and laughing at James. Taryn Terell was giggling like an idiot and flirting with all of them. Aries stood with Kurt Angle, and I knew we were fucked. Along with Storm, who was standing a few feet away, Aries and Angle were the deadliest members of Team Baddie. Aries was supercharged by their leader and couldn't die. He would always regenerate and resurrect, no matter what any of us did, until his master had a mood swing and took that gift away. Angle was extremely powerful on his own. He was also the quickest to draw blood. I figured he was borderline sociopathic, because he really got off on inflicting pain and on mentally manipulating people. Storm was their leader's right-hand man. He had all the inside knowledge and was viscious enough to force good guys to turn to the darkside by participating in rituals so evil I refuse to describe them here. Let's just say that the victims were never the same, even if we were able to reverse the process. Ask Seth Rollins about that sometime. He was the first. He's cured now, but that insane heel turn on _RAW _wasn't a storyline. In fact, he tried to kill his Shield brothers that night, but Reigns is Samoan and is by his very genetics extremely hard to kill and Ambrose is just one insane son of a bitch and he got them both out of the situation. None of them ever fully recovered from that, but Rollins did get better. Eric Young wasn't as lucky. Maybe because he was pure energy, or maybe because he didn't have two brother-like best friends to forgive him so he could forgive himself, EY was still so traumatized we had no idea if we would ever truly get him back.

I could hear Jeff, Wes, and Lauren thinking as they arrived. They quietly joined us. Lauren nearly went charging in when she spotted James, but Jeff stopped her. Wes snarled slightly, but he managed not to lose it and shift into wolf form.

"Someone's coming," Storm said suddenly. "You! Go handle it." He pointed at Aries.

"I'm not your fucking errand boy, Storm," he said.

"You're whatever I _want _you to be, _Boy_," Storm said harshly. "Now go fetch, you little bitch."

Aries glared but did as he was told. "You better go make sure he doesn't fuck up," Storm told Angle in a more respectful tone.

"You're probably right. That dumbass is gonna get us all killed one day," Angle agreed. He followed Aries out.

_Now! _I shouted psychically. Two of the three biggest threats had left the room. Our odds were suddenly much better. We ran in, guns blazing. I threw Brandon into a portal immediately. He screamed in surprise as he fell through to somewhere, possibly Canada... I'm not really sure. I usually aim for other realms, but that was a rush job, and I didn't care where he ended up as long as it was far away.

MVP cursed and grabbed Nelson. They tried to tackle Jeff, but he was quicker. He knocked them both to the ground. Kenny stayed off to the side, not ready to fight. Emily ran for Taryn, who started screaming for help and who had made her way straight to James. Being psychically fried had left her nearly mortal and fairly defenseless, but physically she was still a threat and Emily knew she'd do unspeakable things to James while he couldn't defend himself.

Lauren and Wes hurried to James. Lauren tried to free him, but without pulling the blades free, he was stuck, and if she did that, he would bleed out. Wes shifted gears and focused on trying to take care of his wounds. I went straight for Storm.

I hit him hard in the chest, sending him stumbling backward. Part of me wanted to kill the son of a bitch. My best friend was half dead because of him and his buddies. Still, I knew I needed to focus on getting us all out alive, not killing Storm or the other goons. I opened up a portal, but Storm saw it coming and ducked out of the way.

That was when he laughed and pointed at someone behind me. Jamie was there looking frantic. If Jamie was there, where the hell was Abigail?

"She tricked me," Jamie said to Emily. "She said she needed the bathroom, and then she was gone. I figured she must have come after you guys, so I followed Lauren's energy here. Emily, I'm so sorry..."

"It's not your fault," Emily said. She didn't seem entirely surprised, but she did look worried.

Taryn tried to take advantage of the distraction by lunging at Emiy. That was when Abigail appeared. She shouted, "Leave my mom alone!" Then she looked at a table and it flew right at Taryn's head. It clocked her hard and knocked her unconscious. I admit, I was impressed. I think _everyone_ was, because everything stopped for a minute. MVP, Kenny, and Nelson stared at the kid in confusion. They were all laughing again at the sight of Taryn crumpled and defeated by a little kid. (I guess they didn't understand that Abigail was a _creature_, not a child.) Even Storm had cracked a bit of a smirk at that.

Abigail ran to her mother and threw her arms around her. "I'm sorry, Mom, but I'm _supposed _to be here," she insisted.

"I know, Baby," Emily said sadly. "It's okay."

Aries and Angle returned then. They looked at the scene in confusion. Storm shrugged. "Taryn had that coming," he said simply. "Well done, Little Darlin'."

Abigail glared at him. "My _name _is _Abigail,"_ she informed him.

"Wait, _Abigail_? Isn't she the one we were supposed to-?" Kenny began.

"Shut up, King!" Angle snapped at him. He looked like he might break his jaw. _Dumb as dog shit, I swear to God, _he thought. I couldn't disagree with him there.

I stood beside James. He looked up at me and finally stopped fighting, letting tears form in his eyes. He was shaking. The blocks around him shattered and his thoughts washed over me like a truck hitting a toddler. They nearly knocked me down. I reached down and took his hand.

"It's okay," I promised him. "I've got you. You're going to be alright."

"Mi… Michael…" He whispered. He was terrified. I could tell that they're tried to break him in every way possible, but they'd failed. James was so much stronger than people thought he was. I wanted to kill every last one of them, but I knew I needed to try to heal him first. It was a slow process, and I was quickly distracted when I sensed someone else coming to join us.

My heart sank as Carlos came into the room. He looked different. The darkness had settle over him but it wasn't sitting well. He looked exhausted. He had bags under his eyes and they looked dead.

"Carlos, stop being stupid!" Abigail begged him.

"Abigail-" Emily began.

"No. He needs to hear this! _Please, _Carlos! This isn't you. I _know _you." Abigail put her hand over his heart. Carlos recoiled as if she'd slapped him.

"Abby…" He whispered. I noticed that she didn't correct him.

"You're doing this because Frankie's gone and you're hurting. You're angry. You _should _be. But the people you're angry at are the same people who convinced you to work for them."

"What?" He looked confused.

"They killed him, Carlos."

"It was TJ. _He _killed him."

"He works for the same people that _they _do."

Carlos looked so broken. How had he not realized this? What lies had they fed him?

"No. You're wrong, Abigail. MVP wouldn't lie to me. And Kurt… Kurt's known me since I was a kid. He knew Frankie. He wouldn't have… They've lied to you, sweetheart."

She took his hand in her much smaller one and said, "No, Carlos. They lied to _you_." She looked like she might cry. "I love you, Carlos. I loved Frankie. Please don't let them make you a bad guy. You're _not _a bad guy."

"I'm dark… _So_ dark, Abby…" He shuddered. I could tell he'd been brainwashed. I wondered if Storm had been involved in that. He was, after all, a natural cult leader. People liked listening to what he had to say.

"No. You have light."

"_Frankie _was light. He was _good._ But me? I'm worthless." He looked like he might cry.

"No you're not," MVP said quickly. "Come here, brother. We've got you."

"But…"

"Carlos. _Come. Here._"

Carlos tried to walk over to him, but Abigail grabbed his hand again. "No," she said. "You're stronger than this, Carlos. I _know _you are."

"Carlos," Angle said. He reached for him. Abigail glared at him and the table that had hit Taryn flew at him. It narrowly missed his head. Angle had quick reflexes.

That was when I heard something that made my skin crawl. "Look at that! _Very _impressive," a female voice I knew entirely too well said. "Come here, Abigail. I'd really like to meet you properly."

I spun around and saw Stephanie McMahon standing in the doorway. She looked smug. She tried to put on a reassuring face for Abigail, but the creature wasn't stupid enough to fall for it.

"Abby, come here," Emily said urgently. Abigail ducked behind her mother, suddenly looking very nervous. It was rare to see her intimidated. I started to step closer to her, determined to protect her no matter what, but didn't get far before Stephanie spoke.

"Oh, Poor little Spud," Stephanie said with fake sympathy. "He looks terrible. It would be kinder to kill him."

"Don't you _dare_ touch James!" Abigail shouted. She stared at Stephanie and suddenly, I heard her screaming. I realized Stephanie's hair had caught on fire. She frantically battled at it before ordering Angle to put out the fire. He looked at her like he was debating refusing, but finally whispered something that put the fire out. Her hair was singed and she was cursing her head off.

"Stupid little girl!" Stephanie shouted. "Is that any way to treat your _aunt_?"

I think my jaw dropped. I'd expected Triple H or Shawn Michaels or, hell, even _Vince, _but _Shane_? It couldn't be true. I looked at Emily. She didn't deny it. Instead, she looked like she might cry. She clung to her daughter like she was terrified she was going to vanish any second.

"I've got that brat!" Aries declared. He flung a spell at Abigail, but Jeff got in the way. It hit him hard. He collapsed.

Abigail screamed. Wes immediately knelt beside Jeff to see if he was alright. I looked at him. He shook his head. It was bad. I cursed silently and focused my attention on James. He was bleeding out. If I didn't heal him, he'd die within minutes. I had to turn it up a few thousand notches. I pulled the daggers out of his wrists and began to work even harder. This was going to fuck me up, but I didn't care. It was _James_. There was no way in Hell I was letting him die.

I willed my life force into James, sharing every ounce of strength I had with him to try and save his life. He tried to stop me. "Michael, no," he said. I was relieved he could speak slightly better. It was a start.

"I have to," I told him.

"I won't let you kill yourself, Mate. I just _won't_."

"And_ I_ won't let _you_ die, _Mate_." I squeezed his hand. He needed me and I wasn't going to fail him.

"Michael!" Abigail cried. I spun around and saw that the bad guys were swarming around her and Emily now. I had to help them.

"Go," James said. "I'm strong enough." He wasn't in good shape, but I was positive he was no longer bleeding to death, so I caved and ran to help Emily and Abigail.

MVP knocked Emily back hard. I barely caught her before she could hit her head. As I steadied her, Abigail screamed. Aries had grabbed her.

"Stay the hell away from her!" Jamie screamed. She ran at him with a rage I'd never seen from her before and tackled Aries to the ground.

Aries quickly fought back. He reversed the attack and got Jamie on her back, but she wasn't going down easily. She threw him off of her and started beating the shit out of him. She owed the son of a bitch. I was proud of her, but I couldn't dwell on that. I grabbed Abigail and brought her back to her mother, then turned around to help Jamie as Aries reversed the attack again. I didn't get the chance to. Suddenly, I felt a change in the air. I sensed it a split second too late. Lauren lunged at Aries to try and get him off of Jamie when, to my absolute shock, a portal opened up and swallowed the three of them and they vanished before our eyes.


	9. Chapter 9

**NINE**

"Lauren!" Wes screamed as I continued to stare at the scene, unable to process it.

"Did you just…?" Emily asked me.

"That wasn't me," I informed her. "That son of a bitch can portal!" I'd had no idea. None of us knew that about Aries.

"No!" Abigail screamed. "This is my fault! I ran off on Jamie and that's the only reason she was here!" She looked absolutely devastated. Jamie was great with kids and I knew Abigail adored her.

"We'll get them back," I promised her. I focused. I could still hear snippets of their thoughts. "They're close. He didn't get far. I don't think he wanted to leave a place he was familiar with. They're in one of the three buildings."

"Let's go," Wes said. I looked at him.

"Let's _not,_" Angle said, slashing Wes in his side with what looked like a silver dagger. Wes howled in agony. I noticed Kenny was cringing and remembered he was _also_ a werecreature, although he was a hyena, not a wolf. He stayed back, trying to be invisible.

"You son of a bitch!" I shouted. I could tell the wound was bad. I needed to get us out of there or Wes might die. Jeff didn't look much better. He was lying on the ground having a very violent seizure from the spell Aries had hit him with. James wasn't in the best of shape even though I'd healed him. Lauren and Jamie were gone. Emily and Abigail were still in danger. Abigail… _Shane McMahon's daughter._

I looked at her. "We need to get you out of here," I told her. I could see Stephanie talking to the others, trying to give them some sort of orders. We had very little time.

"No. I can't go, not until we save Carlos… And Jamie and Lauren," Abigail said.

I looked at Carlos. "They will kill her, Carlos. Stephanie will take her and _kill _her. Do you understand me?" I asked him.

He nodded slowly. "You have to make a choice," I continued. "Which side are you really on? You have about thirty seconds."

"Go, Abby," he told her.

"Not without you. If I leave you here, this was all for nothing," Abigail insisted.

He sighed. "Will you let me come?" He asked.

"Yes," I promised him.

"I don't think so," Stephanie said suddenly. She snapped her fingers and Carlos vanished. Now _that _was a pretty fucking neat trick right there. "Sorry, Derrick, but Carlos won't be leaving our side anytime soon."

I wasn't surprised Stephanie didn't know my real name. I was vaguely surprised she even remembered my WWE ring name.

"What did you do?" Abigail demanded.

"Relax, sweetheart," Stephanie said in her fake, sugary voice. "He's perfectly fine. I'll bring you to him if you like."

Emily looked at me and then at Stephanie, and I knew she had a plan. I also knew she needed me to be a distraction. "So, Steph, I was thinking, what would it take to get you to bring me back to WWE?" I asked.

Stephanie looked at me with mild amusement. "While I reluctantly admit your talent has begun to show itself at TNA, we don't exactly have room for someone who shacks up with the Carters on our roster," she told me.

"Come on, Stephanie, I could be great! I'm the next WWE World Heavyweight Champion!"

"Hardly."

"You know you love me. I get more of a crowd reaction than Cena!"

"Ah, but Derrick, _you can't wrestle,_" she told me.

"Yes he can!" James said suddenly. He was standing beside me now.

"Ah! Rockstar Spud survives! What a great underdog story! Now _you _I'd consider giving a contract to," Stephanie said pleasantly.

"Really?" James asked. He had a look on his face that said he was honored. Then he turned cold and said, "Wait, I just remembered… I don't work for racists, hypocrites, _or _bitches, so I guess I can't accept your offer, seeing as how _you're_ all _three_ of those things."

_Holy shit, _I thought with amusement. _Rockstar Spud just called Stephanie McMahon a bitch._

Nelson and MVP were laughing so hard, I suspected they might wet themselves. For once, Kenny was silent. He was still staring at Wes and shaking. I could tell her was terrified. Storm just looked at her and said, "Well, he's not wrong, Darlin'."

Emily suddenly flew into action, flinging her body so hard at Stephanie that she knocked her straight into a wall. Stephanie cracked her head open and Emily flung some kind of spell at her. I watched as Stephanie began twitching.

"Go!" Emily told me. "Take them and get them out of here. I'll go after Jamie and Lauren."

"No way," I said. "I'll open a portal and you guys can go. _I'll _find the girls."

"Michael." She looked very serious suddenly. "I have to be the one. James is still hurt, and you burned yourself out healing him as it is. Jeff's half-dead, and Wes is bleeding out. If you don't get them out of here, they're all going to get killed. They can't navigate the portals when they're this hurt, and I'm not good enough at it to transport that many people, plus my daughter. It _has _to be you."

"I can't leave you here."

"You have to." She looked into my eyes. "Save them, Michael. Save my daughter. Please, no matter what, keep her safe."

I nodded, feeling a terrible sense of dread but knowing she was right. All of us were going to die if we didn't get out of there quickly. I opened the portal.

"Mommy, no!" Abigail cried. She hugged her. "I'm not going!"

"Abby, you have to," Emily told her. She hugged her daughter. "I love you so much, Baby, but I need you to do this for me. I need to know that you're safe." She kissed her on top of her head. Abigail started sobbing. James took her in his arms.

I pulled Emily into my arms and kissed her like I'd never kissed her before. "I love you," I told her. "I'm coming back for you."

"I love you, too," Emily replied. "And I know you are."

I helped Wes stand up. He was in bad shape, but being a werewolf was giving him enough strength to at least try to hold on and fight. The silver would prevent him from healing quickly enough to survive. I knew he needed medical attention. I also knew there weren't a lot of ways to get that for him.

I picked Jeff up and fireman-carried him to the portal. I looked over my shoulder at Emily one last time before all of us went through it.

It's not easy to portal on my own, let alone with so many "passengers." I had to focus all of my energy on getting us to a location I knew would be safe. We arrived a couple of minutes later.

A woman let out a startled gasp as we landed at her feet. I looked at her apologetically. "Sorry, Reby," I said. "We were screwed."

The still very pregnant Reby Hardy stared at me before turning on her inner New York Badass and calling, "Matt! Get your ass in here right now and bring the first aid kit."

Jeff had finally stopped seizing. I laid him down on the couch. Reby helped Wes sit down on a chair and started looking at his wounds. Matt came out and cursed.

"What the hell happened?" He asked as he handed Reby the first aid kit and rushed to his brother's side.

"Jeff took a spell from Aries. It was meant for Abigail," I told him.

Abigail was still in tears. James refused to let her go. "What do we do, Michael?" He asked me.

"You guys stay here. You'll be safe," I said. The Hardy Compound was more psychically locked down than Fort Knox. I knew they'd be okay. "Matt, I think Wes needs a healer, or at least Eddie. He might be able to call his wolf forward enough to get Wes to change form and heal."

"I've got him," Matt promised me.

"Lauren," Wes whimpered. "Please…"

"I'll find her, Wes," I promised him.

"What happened?" Reby asked as she tried to comfort him and take care of as much of his injury as she could.

"Aries apparently learned my parlor trick. He took Lauren and Jamie and portaled out."

"Jamie? Shit. Does Bully know?" Matt asked.

"I didn't exactly have time to tweet it to him," I replied. I suspected _Matt _would have found a way to do that, since Matt Hardy absolutely _lives _on Twitter, but I didn't add that aloud.

"I'll get in touch with him. If he figures it out on his own, all hell will break loose."

I looked at James. "Have you got her?" I asked.

He nodded. "She'll be safe with me," he promised.

"Abigail, I have to go back and help your mom, okay?" I asked.

"I know," she told me. She was still sobbing. I turned to walk away and open another portal, but her tiny voice stopped me. "Michael…"

I turned back and looked at her. To my shock, she ran into my arms and hugged me. Through her sobs, she whispered, "You can call me Abby now."

I held her for a minute. "I'll find your mom, Abby," I promised her.

"I know you will," she told me. "Please don't get yourself killed."

I nodded. She released me and I went through the portal. When I got back to the sight of the battle, it was chaos. Emily had clearly fought her way out. Taryn still lay unconscious where Abigail had knocked her out, but everyone else was missing. Stephanie had vanished, and I suspected she'd actually left the area entirely. I couldn't hear her thoughts, but I knew she'd survived. McMahons are like cockroaches. It's damn near impossible to kill them.

I headed to the next building, searching for a hint of where everyone had gone. I finally found enough property damage to realize they were in the former bagel shop. Beams had collapsed from the ceiling. There was carnage everywhere. There was also a lot of blood. The remains of a dead body were scattered throughout the room. Someone had been mauled. I figured Kenny must have done it, but who had it been? The body was in so many pieces I couldn't recognize who it had belonged to, but I spotted a pair of shoes and realized it had been a male. Had Kenny mauled a member of his own team? What was going on?

I desperately searched for the girls. Suddenly, everything stopped. I couldn't breathe. Emily lay on the floor, unmoving and not breathing. I could tell from the angle of her neck…

No. It couldn't be… She couldn't be…

I started to panic. I rushed to her side and knelt beside her. Her eyes stared back at me, open and vacant. Suddenly, absolutely nothing else mattered. My world shattered. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. I pulled her into my arms. She was still warm.

"No…" I whispered. I started repeating it over and over again, a single word, my mantra. If I said it enough times, maybe it would be true.

I kissed her lips a final time. Even they were still warm. A thought occurred to me.

_You can save her, _I thought. _You can bring her back. _I could. It would be hard, especially with how much energy I'd already expended, but it was possible. I rocked her body in my arms, bracing myself for something I knew was going to kill me. I didn't care. If I could save her, if I could bring her back and know the woman I loved was safe, if I could give Abigail back her mother, then nothing else mattered. Not even my own life.

I heard movement suddenly. "I'm so sorry," Jamie whispered through hysterical sobs. "We tried to save her… We tried to stop him, but… But Angle… I'm so sorry…" She couldn't stop.

To my confusion, a wolf stood protectively in front of her. It snarled at the carnage, clearly not willing to allow any threat anywhere near Jamie. Slowly, I began to realize what had actually happened here.

The mauled body belonged to Aries. That meant he'd be back, but it would take him a very long time to heal all of the damage. We were safe for now. This explained everything. The extreme emotions, the sudden rage, the miraculous healing, and the insanely powerful appetite… Wes hadn't called a healer in after all. He'd infected Lauren with lycanthropy and turned her into a werewolf to save her life.

Jamie began sobbing harder. I was drawn back to Emily's body in my arms. I could still do this. I really could. Yes, it would kill me, but I didn't care. I didn't want to live in a world without her, and who was I, really? Did I matter enough to justify not bringing back a little girl's mother? I certainly didn't think so. I started to try to call her soul back.

The Lauren Wolf came toward me. She growled at me once. I knew what she was trying to say. "I have to," I argued. "I can save her." She growled louder and bared her teeth at me. "I _have _to," I said again. I realized I was crying. "Please… _Please." _I began rocking Emily in my arms, knowing Lauren was right but unwilling to accept it. I couldn't let her go. Not like this.

Lauren rubbed her nose against my arm and began to whimper. She sat beside me and I used one of my hands to pet her while I still held Emily. I couldn't breathe at all. I buried my face in her fur and cried my eyes out in an extremely undignified manner. Finally, I knew what I had to do. Lauren was in wolf form and probably didn't know how to change herself back yet. Jamie was catatonic in the corner, repeating the same things over and over. I wasn't even sure she knew I was there. They wouldn't get out of there on their own and I couldn't leave them there. They needed me.

I tried to pull myself together. I released Emily with great difficulty, kissing the top of her head and closing her eyes before I walked over to Jamie. "Jamie… Sweetie, it's me," I said. "It's Michael."

She looked at me, finally registering that I was there, and flung her arms around me. "Michael… Oh God, Michael, I'm so sorry! I tried to save her… I tried so hard… But Aries attacked me again, so Lauren… Lauren did _that_." She motioned toward the carnage that had been Aries and eventually would be again. "And then Angle came up behind her and he… She didn't see him coming. I tried to warn her, but it was too late. He broke her neck…"

"Shhh," I said gently. "It's alright, Jamie. I know you tried."

"I know you loved her."

"Very much, yes." I tried not to cry, but Jamie hugged me harder and a few tears began to fall again.

"Where's everyone else?" I finally asked.

"MVP and Nelson fled as soon as they saw what Lauren did… I didn't even know she was a wolf!" She shook her head. "Angle disappeared while I was trying to see if I could save Emily…" Her voice cracked.

I suddenly heard motion beneath the rubble. I pulled Jamie behind me protectively. Lauren stood at attention, ready to attack. Whoever it was wasn't in good shape. I got closer and realized that it was Kenny, and he was still alive, if only barely.

"Let's go," I said to Jamie. I didn't give a fuck about him. I just wanted to get out of there. He was one of the bastards that had been involved on the wrong side of a battle that had just killed my girlfriend… He could rot in hell for all I cared.

_Mama… I'm sorry, Ma, _I heard. I realized I could hear Kenny's dying thoughts. _I was so stupid… I never meant to disappoint you… I'll do better… I swear I'll do better… _The pain was unbearable. He couldn't process it. He was hallucinating. More than anything, however, I could hear the regret in his thoughts. _I never meant for it to go so far, Mama… She's just a little girl… You'd kick my ass for hurting a kid… But they want her, and I just thought, "Hey, I have orders. I gotta do this, so I might as well enjoy it…" But Mama… Ma, I'm so sorry… Oh God, what did I do? Why am I such an idiot? Mama… Oh God… Please… I-I don't wanna die…_

"Damnit to fucking hell!" I said aloud. I knew I should leave him, but he was so pathetic right now… Pathetic and full of remorse. As much as I hated to admit it, Kenny King had just had his wake-up call. This was his moment. He was at a crossroads, and he could choose to change his path. I could tell that if he survived this, that's exactly what he would do, and I couldn't very well let the guy die if he was about to join the right side of things. I _did _mention I have a bleeding heart, right? "Son of a bitch…" I moved the debris off of him.

"Michael?" Jamie questioned me.

"We can't just leave him here," I said. I looked at Emily and said, "Enough death has happened today."

She nodded and helped me move the debris, which there was a ton of. Kenny had nearly been flattened by it. He was badly hurt. The internal injuries might kill him even if I did get him help, but I had to try. I looked at Jamie.

"Come on," I said. I carried Kenny out of the building and to my car.

"We're driving?" Jamie asked. Lauren was by her side as we approached the car.

"Yeah. I'm too weak to portal right now."

Jamie helped me get Kenny into the car, laying him on the backseat. I motioned toward the car and Lauren understood my order, sitting on the floor in front of him. "Take shotgun," I told Jamie. "I'll be right back."

She knew what I was doing and didn't argue. I went back inside and picked Emily up in my arms. "I love you," I whispered. "More than my own life. But I know you'd never forgive me if I left them here because then this would have been for nothing…" I carried her toward my car. I was crying again.

"I changed my mind. Can you drive?" I asked Jamie.

She nodded. "Of course," she said.

I sat down in the passenger seat and kept Emily in my arms. If we got stopped by cops, this might be hard to explain, but I didn't care.

"Where to?" Jamie asked me.

"A hospital first," I told her. "We need to get him help."

She nodded and we drove in silence. There really weren't words. She dropped Kenny outside of the hospital and sped away, not exactly ready to answer questions. His survival was in the hands of doctors now. We'd done all we could for him.

"Where do we go now?" Jamie asked.

I sighed. "We need to portal now. It isn't safe to drive that far." I mustered up the last of my strength for one good jump and took the car straight through a portal to the Hardy Compound. At least we didn't land at Reby's feet this time.

I sent Jamie inside first to make sure Abigail wasn't anywhere that she could see me come inside with Emily. She brought Lauren with her. I took a deep breath and carried Emily to the door. I peaked inside and saw Jamie sobbing in Mark's arms and Wes kneeling at Lauren's side, burying his face in her fur and sobbing in relief. Eddie stood nearby. He noticed me in the door and came over.

His face fell when he saw Emily. "Oh shit," he said. "Oh, God, Michael, I'm so sorry…"

I nodded. "Where's Abigail?" I asked.

"Reby took her over to Jeff's to stay with Beth until things calm down," he said. "Beth's trying to comfort the poor kid. She's insisting that… Well… She _knows_, Michael. We told her Emily was fine, but she already knew the truth." I wasn't surprised. I just nodded. Eddie helped me inside because I was unsteady on my feet.

I spotted Jeff awake and alert on the couch. Matt was fussing over him, but when they saw me, they both stopped what they were doing. "Oh no," Jeff whispered.

"I… I didn't know where else to bring her," I told them.

Matt nodded. "It's okay," he said gently. "I'll put her down in one of the guest rooms." He tried to take her from me. I stiffened and gripped her tighter.

"Let me," I said. He stopped reaching for her and led me toward one of the back rooms. I laid Emily down. "I need time," I told him. He respected that, muttered something about how sorry he was, and left me alone.

That was when I really broke. I cried until I had no tears left to cry, and even then, my body shook with hysterics. I crawled into bed with her, refusing to let her go. This couldn't be real. This couldn't be how it ended.

I don't know how much time passed, but eventually, there was a knock on the door. It opened a minute later when I didn't respond. Dixie stood there looking at me with tears in her eyes.

"Oh, Michael," she whispered. She hugged me, and I tried to pull myself together, but I got worse instead. I felt like someone had torn me to pieces and thrown me into a blender and then tried to put me back together again. "Shhh," she whispered. "I'm here. It's alright. Just let it out, Darlin,'. I'm right here."

I shook. I hyperventilated. I cried fresh tears. I was a complete mess. Dixie just kept rubbing my back and whispering comforting words to me.

"I loved her, D," I finally managed to say.

"I know you did, Darlin,'. And she knew it, too. She loved you so much, Michael."

"I can't do this. I can't… I fucking _can't_!"

She looked me in the eye. "Yes you _can, _Michael. You're the strongest person I know, and I will _not _allow you to sit here claiming you can't do something, because that's bull!"

I was surprised by her use of such harsh words. I stared at her. "I love you, Michael," she told me. "You are my family, and my heart absolutely breaks for you, Darlin', but I won't let this destroy you. I know you're still in there, trying to cope with this and find a way to get through it, and I know you _will_. It doesn't feel that way now, and it shouldn't, because you loved her. But you _will _survive this. I swear to you, you will get through this."

"How?" I demanded. I pulled away from her. She wiped my tears away with her index finger.

"You're a Carter, Michael," she told me. "Blood doesn't mean anything. You've got the Carter spirit in your blood. You'll survive because that's what Carters _do_."

James peaked his head inside. "Michael?" He asked. His eyes fell on Emily, but he looked away quickly, unable to stand seeing her like that.

"Come on in, James," I said. He joined me, pulling me into a hug. He was ready to cry. "How are you feeling, Buddy?" I forced myself to ask. Dixie was right. Life had to go on, even if I didn't want it to. James had nearly died today. I couldn't ignore that.

"I'm doing better," he said. "You saved me, Michael. I wouldn't have survived today without you."

"Come on, Boys," Dixie said. "We're going to leave this room right now."

I looked at her with pleading eyes. "D, I can't," I whispered.

"What did I just tell you about that word, Michael?" She took my hand. "It's time to say goodbye, Darlin.' I am so, _so _sorry, but you have to do this." She looked at me. "We need you, Michael. And her little girl? _She_ needs you more than any of us."

I knew she was right. Tears slowly streamed down my cheeks and fell onto Emily's face as I held her for a final time. I kissed her forehead. "I love you," I whispered. "I'm so sorry."

I clung to Dixie's hand. I could do this. I _had _to do this.

With help from James, I got off of the bed. I held both of their hands as they led me out of the room. I tried not to scream as the door closed behind me. There was more work to be done, and even if there wasn't, Dixie was right. Abigail needed me. I braced myself for what would be the hardest conversation I'd ever had to have in my entire life.

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **__I know you all probably hate me right now. I absolutely hated writing this chapter, but unfortunately, I knew I had to do it. Excuse me while I go curl up in a ball and sob because I think I just broke my own Feels. I'll be back soon, because just like Michael said, there's still more work to be done._


	10. Chapter 10

**TEN**

After rejoining the world, I let Matt take me to Jeff and Beth's house. Their little girl Ruby cheerfully greeted me with a hug. I forced myself to stay calm until I was alone. Abigail joined me in the front yard a couple of minutes later.

As soon as she saw me, the Abigail Creature walked over to me and crawled into my lap. She wrapped her arms around my neck and wept into my shoulder. I held her, suddenly painfully aware that this little creature was indeed actually a child after all and she'd just lost the only parent she knew.

"I'm... I'm sorry, Abby," I whispered into her hair. It felt odd to call her that, but she no longer seemed to mind.

"I know," she whispered back. "You did everything you could, Michael."

I lost it then. I started to cry along with her. I held her tighter. She snuggled against me and I think it comforted me as much as it comforted her.

"You loved her almost as much as I did," Abigail told me.

"Yes, I did," I confirmed.

Together, we mourned Emily. I hadn't known her long, we had only been dating for a little while, and we'd never even had sex, but I had loved Emily on a level I couldn't even begin to explain. I never really believed in soulmates before, but I'm certain that Emily was mine.

"She loved you, too, Michael," Abigail told me. "I tried to keep you away because I wanted to protect her, but she loved you anyway. She was _happy _with you."

The creature's words were breaking me. "Thank you," I told her because it was clearly hard for her to admit this to me.

After a few moments, I felt compelled to say, "I really tried to save her..."

"You couldn't. No one could," Abigail said. Her next words shocked me. "I got her killed. This is my fault."

"Abby, no! You didn't do anything to cause this."

"I'm seven, but I'm not stupid. I'm not a normal kid. I know what happened, how it works... We have paths we can follow. Mom was following one, but then I disobeyed her. I showed up, knocking us all onto another path, and Jamie had to come after me... Aries was able to kidnap her because I was there, and Lauren got stuck in the middle, and he took them... And then you and Mom had no choice but to split up because James and Jeff were hurt... She had to go after the girls because you had to save us... But if Jamie hadn't been there, that wouldn't have happened. She would have left with you. If I hadn't been there for Aries to try to attack and Jamie didn't try to save me, my mom would still be alive." She was freakishly calm as she explained this to me. She sounded clinical and detached, like she was describing a phenomenon found in nature.

"Abigail, listen to me," I said firmly. I forced her to look into my eyes. "This is not even _slightly _your fault. You said it youself; you were _supposed _to be there. You did what you had to do, and your mom did, too. She died-" My voice cracked. I took a deep breath and tried again. "Your mother died a hero."

She nodded, seemingly satisfied for the time being. We stayed outside until Beth insisted on feeding us. A few hours later, Dixie drove up to Jeff's house.

Dixie gave Abigail a big, warm hug. Abigail liked Dixie, so she let her. Then Jeff offered to take her to one of his secret spots so she could find her inner creature or something.

"What's wrong, D?" I asked when we were alone.

"I'm sorry, Michael, but this can't wait," Dixie said. "Emily's lawyer called."

"Um... I didn't even know she had one."

"She had a will. I helped her set this all up... She left everything she had in this world to her little girl."

"Logically."

"And she left her little girl to _you_, Michael."

I stared at her. "What?" I asked.

"She left custody of Abigail to you. It seems you were the only one she trusted enough."

I honestly hadn't really thought about who might take care of the Abigail Creature. She was living with me and I hadn't considered that this might change.

"You can relinquish custody if you feel like you should-" Dixie started to say.

"No!" I said quickly. "This is what Emily wanted..." I paused. "Besides, I can't picture my life without the Abigail Creature anymore..."

Dixie smiled at that. "I'm proud of you, Michael. Taking in a child is a lot."

"Ah, but she's not a child. She's a _creature_... She's _my _creature." It was starting to sink in. I'd been entrusted with protecting Abigail, and I refused to fail her. I had lost Emily. Abigail was all I had left of her, and I'd be damned if anyone was going to hurt her.

When Jeff brought Abigail back around dinner time, I took her aside. "Abby... Before everything happened, your mom made a will. She left everything she had to you... And she left instructions about who she wanted to be your guardian," I said.

Abigail looked at me sadly. "I have to leave, _don't _I?" She asked. "Where did she decide to hide me?"

"No, that's not what I'm saying, Abby. She wanted you to stay with _me_."

Abigail relaxed. "Okay," she said simply.

"Okay?" I repeated.

"Okay, I accept that choice. I'll stay with you." She said this as if she could have fought Emily's choice if she hadn't liked it. I was relieved she wanted to stay with me because I suspected she'd have run away if she didn't.

We ate dinner with Dixie and Jeff's half of the Hardy Clan. Everything was fine... until it wasn't.

There was a knock on the door at eleven-thirty or so. I could sense the shift in Jeff's thoughts as he opened it. I headed toward the front door and saw for myself the reason he was in shock.

I hadn't seen the woman in the doorway in a few years, but I knew her well. I _also _knew the only reason she would be here now. I really liked her, but this was _not _ good.

"Sellie..." I mumbled. Sellie still hadn't spotted me. She was busy chatting pleasantly with Jeff.

"Wait, as in the McMahons' shark of a lawyer?" Dixie asked me.

I nodded. "Specifically the woman who disproves every single custody claim people file against Vince and Shane... And if she's here, it means Stephanie told Shane the truth."

Sellie spotted me then. She was dressed casually and I knew Shane must have given her no notice whatsoever before demanding she drive all the way to North Carolina from Connecticut. Sellie wasn't like other lawyers. Unless she was in court, she dressed in t-shirts and jeans. She was especially fond of wrestling shirts, punk band gear, and _Avengers _apparel. Her hair was nearly always in pigtails. She looked like a crazy punk girl, but she never lost a case. In spite of being the best lawyer the McMahons had, Sellie wasn't a bad person. On any other night, under any other circumstances, I would have hugged her and caught up.

"Michael," she greeted me. "How are you?"

"I've been better," I said with an edgy tone.

"I'm so sorry to hear about your girlfriend..." Sellie looked like she wanted to hug me, but she kept her professional posture. _I don't want to do this to him, _she thought. _Fuck my job... Shane's a great guy, but so is he. This isn't right... _

_No, _I thought, but I didn't project it. _Please don't say it_.

Sellie _didn't _say it. Instead, someone _else _did.

"I'm here about my daughter," Shane McMahon said without preamble as he joined us in the doorway.

Jeff was still keeping them outside. "I know we should have called, but when I heard that not only did I have a daughter but she just lost her mother, I knew I had to come," Shane continued. "I'm sorry for just showing up, Jeff, but my sister said Michael had her, and I called Dixie's people to find out where he was, and they said you were all here... It's good to see you again."

I was surprised Shane knew my name. Then again, he wasn't like his family. In fact, Shane was probably one of the purest people in the world as far as the psychic battle went.

"Aw, hell," Jeff mumbled. "Come on in, guys." He didn't look thrilled, but keeping Shane and Sellie outside might draw the wrong kind of attention.

We headed into the living room. Beth squeaked in surprise at the sight of Shane McMahon in her house. (I imagine most people would.) Sellie greeted her warmly and Beth relaxed slightly.

"Michael, I really _am _sorry about Emily," Shane said. "She was a great woman... Steph said it was sudden, some sort of accident?"

I glared at him coldly. "Is _that _what _Steph _said?" I asked.

Shane looked at me as the truth set in. "What happened to her?"

I wanted to reply with some nasty retort. I wanted to blame his sister. I wanted to hurt him. I hurt so much, and I needed an outlet, but I stopped myself. This wasn't Shane's fault.

"The battle got her," Dixie supplied because no one else spoke. "Hello, Shane. Pleasure to see you as always." I was pretty sure that was sarcasm, although Dixie liked Shane better than the other McMahons.

"Dixie." Shane replied with a nod of acknowledgement.

"Why are you here, Shane?" I asked.

"I've come to meet my daughter. She shouldn't be alone-"

"She _isn't_."

He hesitated. "Michael, I truly _am _sorry for your loss, but my daughter needs me now."

"She doesn't _know _you."

"Emily kept her from me, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm her father. Stephanie found out years ago and hid it from me because she didn't know where my daughter was, but-"

"How? Emily never told anyone, so how did Stephanie know?"

"You know how she is. Just like my father, she makes it her business to find these things out. I'm sure she used psychic means to find out, but that doesn't change the fact that this is my kid."

"We want a DNA test," Sellie said. "I can file the paperwork and force you to do it, but I think it would be better for everyone if you cooperated and just let us run the test." She looked at me with sad eyes.

_I hate this Adulting crap, _she thought. _This is so wrong... It's clear he loves the kid and he just lost the woman he loves. I don't want to do this to him, but the kid is Shane's... Fucking hell, I hate him right now. The guy couldn't have given Michael a few days to grieve with the kid before swooping in like a vulture?_

I could see flashes of what had happened. Apparently, Stephanie told Shane he had a kid he didn't know about and her mom had died in a sudden accident, leaving the poor child in the treacherous hands of TNA. I don't know if it was the idea of a tiny McMahon being raised by Carters that propeled him into action or if he just genuinely wanted his child, but Shane had demanded Sellie meet him immediately so they could collect Abigail. Sellie was reluctant, but it was her job to do this, so she'd gotten in the car and they'd rushed to the Hardy Compound.

"Emily left Abigail to Michael," Dixie said. "I'm calling in her lawyer."

"You can do that, but my client has a right to the child by blood," Sellie said. "Blood will win over paperwork."

I knew Sellie never lost a case. This wasn't going to end well.

"I'm fighting this," I informed her. "Emily wanted me to take care of Abigail and I intend to do that."

Shane looked sympathetic. "I'm not trying to cut you out of her life, Michael. You can still see her, but she belongs with me... Can I see her?"

"It's almost midnight. She's _seven, _Shane. She's _asleep_."

He looked embarrassed. "Right... Of course. Tomorrow, then."

I put up a hand to shut everyone up as I heard new thoughts nearby. I looked at the corner by the door and whispered to Jeff, "Ruby's up."

Jeff stood and crept to the door. A minute later, he made a monster noise like a roar and scooped up a squealing tiny human. Ruby shrieked, "Daddy, put me down!"

"If you sneak out of bed to listen to the grown-ups again, _Willow's _gonna come for you!" Jeff declared.

Ruby giggled. "I _like _Willow," she reminded him.

"_I _don't!" I said in my best kayfabe voice. Hey, when a guy beats you up with an umbrella, cackles, and kidnaps your sidekick, it makes you dislike him!

"But he's just _Daddy,_ Silly," Ruby informed me.

"Really?" I looked at Jeff in shock. "You've been lying to me all this time!"

Jeff kept a straight face as he said, "I don't know what you're talking about, Michael."

Ruby giggled some more. "Time for little creatures to be in bed," Jeff said. After a few more kisses to her forehead, he handed Ruby over to Beth, who carried her back to her room.

"She's beautiful, Jeff," Shane said.

"Too much cute in one small body," Sellie added. "It must be hard to tell her no."

"Hard? Try impossible. Beth's gotta be the tough one. I see that little face and I can't," Jeff said.

"Little girls are great at that," Shane said. I remembered he had other kids at home.

I stood and nearly collapsed. "Michael!" Dixie cried out as she grabbed my arm to steady me. She made me sit back down. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," I lied. I was dizzy and shaking. I didn't know if it was residual burnout from the battle or just the stress of Shane coming for Abigail, but I was definitely _not _okay.

"It's been a long day," Jeff said. "You should get some rest, Michael." He stood over me protectively.

"We should get to a hotel and crash for the night," Sellie said to Shane.

I could tell Jeff was debating telling Sellie to crash with Matt and Reby. They certainly had the room. (For God's sake, they had their own movie theater!) Purely because she had Shane with her, he decided against it.

"Right. I'm exhausted," Shane admitted.

"We'll start the process of taking care of this in the morning," Sellie said.

"No, you will _not_," Dixie said sharply, surprising us all. "Emily's funeral is tomorrow and if either of you has half a heart, you will let her little girl have _one day _to grieve before you try to take her away from everything she knows. We have to do what is best for the child."

Shane was about to protest when Sellie interrupted him. "She's right. The kid's been through enough, Shane. We can give her a day to mourn without the added stress of all of this."

I was grateful Sellie had decided to put her foot down on that. _Thank you, _I mouthed to her. She nodded.

"Okay," Shane agreed. "I guess this can wait one more day."

As he and Sellie left, I tried to stand again. I was trembling. "Michael, Darlin', what can I do?" Dixie asked as she gently put a hand on my arm.

I didn't answer her. Instead, I leaned against her and let her hug me. Finally, I managed to ask, "Can you get James for me?"

She nodded. "Of course I can." She made me sit again before going out to her car. Jeff sat with me until she returned a little bit later. James was wearing pajama pants and a t-shirt, but he didn't seem to mind that I'd had Dixie wake him up and get him from Matt's house.

Jeff left James and I alone, guiding Dixie to a guestroom and insisting she spend the night. When I knew we were alone, I let my guard down.

"I don't know what to do," I admitted.

"Talk to me, Mate," James said.

I explained what had happened. James listened patiently before saying, "You just focus on tomorrow, Michael. Get yourself and Abigail through that, and let Dixie worry about the legal side."

"I feel like I can't breathe..."

James took my hand and squeezed it. "One thing at a time, Mate. You can do this. You're _you_, Michael. You can do _anything_." His blind faith in me melted my heart. If James believed in me, maybe I _could _do this.

"Thanks, James," I said. "I'm sorry I had Dixie drag you out of bed."

"I wasn't sleeping anyway." _Not with the nightmares, _he added silently. I knew he didn't want me to call him on that, so I let it go. After everything he'd just been through, nightmares were to be expected. I hoped he'd talk to me about them eventually so I could help him, but until he did, I had to pretend I didn't hear his thoughts. "And even if I was asleep, I'm here for you, Michael. Day or night."

"You really _are _the best friend I could ever ask for," I told him. I gave him a hug.

"You need to sleep, Michael."

"I know..." I sighed. "Crash with me?"

He nodded. We'd crashed in the same bed before because he'd been scared and he felt safer with me around. We were as close as brothers and James was like a little kid crawling into his big brother's bed during a thunderstorm. This time, however, _I _was the one who was scared.

_Everything will be okay, _James projected into my head. I really wanted to believe that.

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **__For anyone who has read my fics _Laugh Riot _and _Taste of Pain,_ yes, this is the same Sellie from those stories. This fic takes place in a psychic world and those two do not, but apparently, Sellie gets into _everything _for the McMahons. Anyway, sorry it took me a few days to write this chapter. I was trying to mend my broken heart after the last one... There's still more to come. Thanks for the reviews and feedback! I actually got to meet EC3 for the third time at an indy show a couple of days ago and I just want to say, he's a genuinely nice guy when not in character. It's always good to see him. That's part of why I decided to write a fic about him._


	11. Chapter 11

**ELEVEN**

I tried to tell myself this was just another day. I'd been to my fair share of funerals recently. We were at war. It happened more than anyone liked to admit. The problem was, this wasn't just another day and it wasn't just any funeral. I was about to bury the woman I loved, and part of me wanted to just give up and be buried with her.

_You have to be strong for Abigail, _I reminded myself. _She needs you. You are her guardian._

I wasn't sure how long I'd be her guardian, but as long as I was, I had to function.

I didn't eat breakfast. I allowed myself to drink a Vegas Fuel, because I am the spokesperson for the company and I'm addicted to the stuff. It didn't fix my mood, but it gave me a little bit of adrenaline so I could attempt to get through the day.

James had woken up before me. He had proceeded to get up and quietly iron my black button-down shirt and dress pants. They were _beyond _ perfectly ironed and I knew James was freaking out. He threw himself into things like that when he wasn't okay.

"Thanks, Buddy," I said gently. "Are you okay?"

"I..." He hesitated. He knew it was pointless to lie to me. "I feel responsible, Michael."

"For what?" I was genuinely confused.

"For _this_. All of you risked your lives to save _me_... And you lost her. You lost the first woman I've ever seen you get serious with. I... I'm so sorry, Michael!" James started to cry.

I immediately grabbed him and pulled him into a hug. "Stop that right now," I said firmly. "You are _not _responsible for this." This was the second time I'd had to tell someone that in the last twenty-four hours. James looked broken, and that broke _me_. "We all made that choice knowing what could happen. You didn't ask to get kidnapped and tortured, James. You didn't even ask to be rescued."

"It should have been me. Not her, Michael. She had a daughter! She had _you_. Her life was _worth _something!" He was crying harder now and he fell to his knees. I knelt beside him. I tried to touch his shoulder, but he recoiled like I'd slapped him.

"James..." I hated seeing him like this. He didn't deserve to hurt this much.

"Emily's life _meant _something..." He stared at the floor.

"So does _yours_, James. You were worth saving, too."

"She had a family! She was a mother! What am I? I'm _nothing_! I'm just poor, pathetic Spud, the one who needs saving, the butt of every joke, the guy who doesn't matter because in the scheme of things, I'm not that important to anyone." He was rambling. Some of it was what they'd said to him while he'd been kidnapped, and some was how he actually felt about himself at times, but he wouldn't stop going on and on about how his life didn't matter and I suddenly couldn't take it anymore.

"Shut up!" I told him shaply. He stared at me in stunned silence. "That's my best friend you're talking about."

"How can I still be your best friend?" He asked me. "How can you look at me and not see the reason Emily's gone? Why don't you hate me?"

"Because you're _not _the reason, James," I told him. "_They _are. The bad guys, the monsters who kidnap good people and who kill them for kicks. _Not _you. And you're _not _nothing. You aren't 'poor, pathetic Spud.' _You _are _Rockstar _Spud, and you are the best person I know."

"I'm a _loser_, Michael. I don't matter to anyone in any way that means anything. My own family turned their backs on me."

"They're blind assholes. _They _don't matter, James, but _you_? You matter more than anyone."

"I do not-"

"You _have _a family, James. You have _me_. You have Dixie. You have everyone at TNA, all of Team Good."

"But why?" He really didn't get it. "I'm weak. I'm no one."

"Because you're our _heart_, James. That's why they took you. They knew breaking you would break the rest of us. All of us dropped everything to save you without a second thought because you are the heart of our fucked up little family. Every single one of us loves you and none of us regret our choice to save you. Neither did Emily." My voice cracked on her name, but I kept going. "If we had it to do over, even knowing what would happen, we would do it again."

He cried harder, but I knew he was going to be okay now. The bad guys had broken him, but he was stronger than anyone knew. He would come back from this.

We got ready once he was calmer. When we joined the others, I spotted Dixie fixing Abigail's hair. She'd somehow tamed the mess of curls into a braid. I was impressed.

Dixie took Abigail's hand and led her toward me. Abigail wore a simple black dress and Mary Janes. I was grateful Dixie had taken care of getting her ready because I wasn't even sure where to begin.

"You look beautiful, Abby," I told her.

"Thanks. I guess you're presentable," she replied to me. I looked at her to see if she was joking and she cracked a very slight smile. I pulled her into a hug.

"Are you ready?" Jeff asked. It always startled me to see Jeff cleaned up in normal people clothing.

"No," I said. "But let's go."

We had decided to keep Emily's funeral low-key. She was being buried on the Hardy Compound to ensure no one tried to mess with her body... _Her body... _God, that's still so hard to say, even now. Anyway, we knew she'd be safe there. We exclusively invited Team Good, refusing to allow the bastards who had killed her anywhere near her now.

"I... I should have called people," I said suddenly. "She was big on the indies. I don't know half of her friends..."

"Relax," Jeff said gently. "I called the Bucks and asked them to take care of that. The people who should be here will be."

"Thank you..."

Sure enough, a bunch of cars were already there when we arrived at the burial spot. I immediately spotted the Young Bucks huddled together and looking severely broken. They were with some other indy guys, but as much as they tried to joke around and make small talk, their eyes were devastated.

Abigail ran from my arms straight into theirs. Nick hugged her and Matt (as in Massie/Jackson/Buck) picked her up and refused to put her down. She sobbed in his arms while he held her and Nick stroked her hair and back. Both of them had tears in their eyes. Matt (Hardy) was with them, and so was Reby. Jeff and I walked over to them.

"I'm so sorry, Michael," a voice said. I turned and recognized my friend Scotty Colton. He hugged me. "I got to know her a little before she got to TNA. This just isn't right..." For the first time ever, Scotty had no humor in his voice. Colt Cabana as you probably know him is _never _overly serious, but this loss had clearly hit him hard enough to suck the comedy right out of him.

Tommy Dreamer came and patted me on the shoulder. He didn't tell me he was sorry for my loss. I appreciated that. Besides, I already knew.

By the time the service started, there were a lot of people there. All of the Team Good people from TNA had shown up. It was good to have the support of my TNA family, and I knew everyone had loved Emily. The Young Bucks had rounded up a decent amount of indy wrestlers on very short notice. Paul London, one of the strangest guys in the world and a WWE survivor, was there. Maria and Mike Bennet, Matt Taven, and Adam Cole were standing near him. Candice LeRae sobbed hysterically in her boyfriend Johnny Gargano's arms. I could see even Johnny was crying. Joey Ryan was near them, but gave the real-life couple their distance to allow them to comfort each other. Hania the Huntress stood with Athena. I knew Emily had wrestled both of them before. Ron Zombie and Bull Dredd were nearby. I knew Emily had done a lot of work with Northeast Wrestling, where they both worked frequently. To my surprise, Brian Anthony was also there, keeping a respectful distance from everyone else. The last I'd heard, he was a Team Baddie guy, but maybe that had changed. I reached out to his thoughts.

_Em… Jesus, Em… _He kept repeating in his head. The kid looked like he was going to cry any second. I saw Jamie looking at him.

_How is he allowed to be here? _I asked her telepathically. Jamie did a lot of work with Northeast Wrestling and Brian had nearly attacked her during an unscripted part of a show where he went after her male tag partner.

_Emily trained him, _Jamie sent back. _They were extremely close and when he heard Zombie and Dredd talking about this, he broke down in hysterics. Ron asked me if it was okay if he brought him._

_I thought Zombie hated him? _I asked.

_He _does_. Brian was _that _broken up. Besides, he said a while back that Taryn trapped him on Team Baddie and he didn't actually want to be there. Maybe he'll switch sides now._

I felt kind of bad for him. He was there by himself, in enemy territory, just because he wanted to pay his respects and needed to say goodbye. I decided Emily would have wanted him there. Abigail's reaction at the sight of him confirmed this, as she gave him a very quick hug before returning to my side.

I kept looking at the people there, unable to bring myself to look at the casket. Lance Anoa'i and his uncle Afa Jr. were both present. Lance look inconsolable. Afa looked pissed the fuck off, but he typically does. I saw couple of guys I didn't recognize with them.

"PPW guys," Tommy informed me when he saw me looking at them. "Pennsylvania Premier Wrestling, this promotion in Bumfuck, Pennsylvania… I mean _Hazleton_. I forget their names… They go by South Philly's Finest or some shit… I tagged with them once."

"Nice guys?" I asked.

"Mostly, yeah. I didn't think the white guy was psychic, though. Maybe his partner just told him about Emily and brought him along. He's a lycanthrope of some sort."

I nodded. Balls Mahony was nearby balling his eyes out. He was with a couple of the PWS guys. I knew a few of them because I knew Pat Buck very well, and he owned the promotion. Several of the TNA guys had worked at PWS at one time or another. Missy Sampson was with them and she was chain smoking. Her thoughts were frantic and her eyes were bloodshot. I could tell Missy didn't like funerals, but I knew she'd done a bunch of shows with Emily and the two had even had a rivalry at one point. Emily had adored her.

I couldn't name half of the people who'd come out, but that didn't seem to matter. They'd all loved Emily, and they'd all come to say goodbye.

As the service started, I held Abigail's hand. I noticed Shane and Sellie far away and mostly out of sight. They'd come to pay their respects, but thankfully, they were keeping their distance. I tried to ignore them. As the service progressed, I ignored that, too. I couldn't listen to what was being said. It was too hard. It was too _real _and none of it meant anything at all. Abigail stood perfectly still, but I could feel how tense she was. I tried to send soothing thoughts her way, hoping she'd hear them.

As everyone began thinking too loudly, my blocks began to fall. I nearly collapsed right there, but as usual, Mark figured out I had an issue and rushed to my side, throwing his shield up around me so fast it was like I'd gone deaf. I was relieved. I needed a break from all of that.

When it was finally time to say goodbye, everyone walked up to the casket. I suddenly couldn't move. I took a deep breath, but it felt like I wasn't getting any air. I faked it anyway and led Abigail up to the casket.

"She's not in there," she told me. She calmly placed a flower on the casket. "This is just for show. Dead people move on. Living people have funerals for _themselves_."

"You are _not _seven years old," I told her. "Show my your real ID and admit that you're a midget."

"That's _not_ politically correct."

"Really? Fine, _vertically challenged._"

I think she was considering kicking me, but she resisted the urge. "Say goodbye, Michael," she said. "It's time." She took a sobbing Jeff's hand and walked away.

I walked up to the casket. The kid was right, but this was still hard as hell. I put the flower on the casket and let my hand linger for a moment. That was when it all hit me like a truck. This was real. Emily was gone. She was never going to come back.

I collapsed against the casket, sinking to my knees as my legs gave out beneath me. I started sobbing. Dixie and James were the first to my side. Each of them tried to help me stand, but I couldn't move.

"I can't…" I whispered.

"You have to get up, Darlin,'" Dixie said gently. She didn't snap at me for my word choice this time.

"I can't do it… I _can't_ do this…" My chest hurt.

"You _can_ do this, Mate," James said firmly.

He was right. In theory, I could do it. I could stand up and walk away. "I don't _want _to…" I admitted tearfully.

"I know, Mate… But you _have_ to. And we're going to help you do it."

I nodded, knowing he was right. I let James and Dixie help me back on to my feet and we walked away from the casket. I refused to look back, knowing if I did, I'd never have the strength to leave.

After that, Abigail slipped her hand into mine, and I found my strength. I stopped crying and pulled myself together. We left the burial area and went back to Matt's house for whatever it is people do after funerals. I stayed on autopilot for the rest of the night, numbly thanking people for their sympathy and kind words, but at least I was functional. I'd need to be for whatever came next.


	12. Chapter 12

**TWELVE**

The lawyer Dixie called in, Tobias Donovan, was quick to tell me I needed to get the DNA test done on Abigail. If there was even a slight chance she wasn't Shane's, we had to take it, and cooperating now would look better if we had to fight him beyond that.

Donnie, as he insisted we call him, was from Boston. He was very polished, and was everything you'd expect a hot-shot lawyer to be, except he was a genuinely nice guy. I could see why Emily had trusted him. Abigail seemed to at least tolerate him, although she insisted on calling him Tobias.

The results came back positive, not that I'd had any doubt. That was when Sellie filed the paperwork to take my creature away from me. That was also when Shane finally met his daughter.

He saw her from a distance at first. "My God," he said. "She's beautiful."

I could see how much he wanted to know her. The other McMahons might have bad plans for her, but Shane just genuinely wanted to take care of his daughter.

"Abigail, this is Shane," I said as she joined us.

"Hello, Abby," Shane said.

Abigail glared at him. "My _name _is _Abigail_," she corrected him harshly. I tried not to laugh. It was nice not to be on the creature's shit list anymore, but Shane had just put himself at the top.

"I'm sorry," Shane said quickly. "I just thought-"

"You assumed that your biological claim over me gave you the right to call me by a nickname, but nicknames are for people who _know _each other. _You _are a stranger, Shane."

His jaw dropped. Okay, so _maybe _I should have warned him that he'd fathered a _creature _and not a child, but I have to admit,_ this_ was more fun. If he couldn't handle her, he didn't deserve her.

"Also, your given name is Shane, and that is what I'm going to call you. I don't have a dad and I don't need or want one. I'm in good hands here with the people Mom wanted me with. You can go now," Abigail dismissed him.

Shane was stuttering as he tried to form a coherent response. He failed. Abigail had that effect on some people. It was Sellie who broke the awkward silence.

"Nice try, Kid, but your father has the right to take you into his custody. Legally, you belong with him, and I think you know that," Sellie said.

"When couples get divorced, if a child proves to be mature enough, their choice is heavily factored into deciding where they end up," Abigail countered. "My mother wanted me to stay with Michael, and I approve of her choice."

"This isn't a divorce. It's different when a parent passes away."

"She _died_. Don't say that to make it sound prettier and happier. My mother was _murdered_. She didn't _pass _to some better place because she needed a change of scenery or because some God wanted her as an angel or any of that. I'm _seven, _not _stupid_."

Sellie nodded. "I like you, Abigail. You don't beat around the bush. When parent dies, but one remains, the court generally feels it's best to leave the child in the care of the living parent."

"Shane is a complete stranger. He's not my dad."

"He didn't know about you because your mom never told him. If she had, he would have been there for you. Shane _wants _to get to know you, Abigail."

"No, what Shane _wants _is to take me away from the people I know and love, regardless of what's best for _me_. I don't _want_ to be another shiny McMahon for them to show off at parties. I don't _want _ to inherit shares of a corrupt company like WWE. I don't _want _to leave Michael and James and Dixie and Jeff and TNA. _This _is my home. This is where I _belong_."

Sellie studied her. "Have you ever considered becoming a lawyer? You'd be great," she said finally. I had to agree.

"Thank you. It's on my list of things to do, in-between curing stupidity and defeating the forces of evil one jerk at a time." She looked at me. "Can we _go _now, Michael?"

"Sure, Abby," I said. Shane looked like he was waiting for her to attack me. Instead, she clung to my hand. She hid it well, but I could tell she was scared they were going to take her away from me. I pulled her close and hugged her. Then I turned to leave.

"We're pushing this through quickly," Sellie told me.

"Of course you are. The McMahons wait for no one," I replied. "We'll see you in court. Come on, Abby. Let's go."

We walked away and went back to the Hardy Compound. We were going to stay there until after the hearing. Neither one of us was ready to go back home yet, and given my strange work circumstances and travel schedule, the family court of North Carolina had agreed to handle the case.

_**(THREE DAYS LATER...)**_

Sellie worked quickly. The emergency custody hearing was about to begin. As we drove to court, Abigail said, "Don't let them take me away, Michael. _Please_."

"I'm going to fight with everything I have," I promised her. "I love you, Abby."

She squeezed my hand in response.

I knew pretty early on that we were in trouble. Sitting with Shane and Sellie was Stephanie. I think Abigail wanted to attack her, but she knew we were in a courtroom and we couldn't just attack a McMahon. (No matter how much we both wanted to.)

Sellie started out on fire, as always. She and Donnie worked so well against each other it was like watching a play. There was a familiar banter betweem them and I sensed a friendly rivalry. I guess with him being Dixie's top lawyer and her being Vince's, they had probably gone up against each other a lot.

_Come on, Dummy. Take the bait. Follow my lead, like you did in law school, always right behind me, _Sellie thought. Apparently, the two went back further than I thought. That was when I heard her say, "My client has a steady schedule. He spends all of his time with his family. He is reliable and comes from a family with a great history of community service."

"The McMahon family _also _has a great history of fraud, scandal, and doing things _no one _would find to be appropriate to expose a child to," Donnie said. He began a lengthy argument about the corruption the McMahons were infamous for.

I was puzzled. Sellie had left herself wide open to that argument. Sellie, who crossed every t, dotted every i, and never lost a case, had just screwed up.

I read her thoughts again. _I can't believe I'm trying to throw this case... God help me... But I can't take that little girl away from him. It isn't right. I sold my soul, but this is too much..._

I was stunned. Sellie was actually willing to screw up her perfect record for me. She was risking her career, and hell, maybe even her _life _if Stephanie figured out what she was up to. I wanted to hug her, but that would sort of give it away, so I resisted the urge.

As the hearing continued, Sellie did her best to leave room for Donnie's attacks and he jumped at nearly every single chance. I was positive it was going well until Stephanie was called to testify.

Stephanie McMahon was first and foremost a business woman. She cleaned up well and knew exactly how to spin things in her favor. She had been doing it her entire life. She sounded confident, sympathetic, and caring on the stand. It was an amazingly convincing act.

"Your honor, although I am sure Michael Hutter has the best of intentions, he is _not _Abigail's father. My brother Shane is the best father I know and I'm confident Abigail will be happy and loved in his care. Mr. Hutter travels frequently. His employment situation makes my niece's life unstable at best. Shane is married and stays in one place. He's dedicated to his wife and children, and he's already shown what a wonderful parent he is. Children _need _stability. Leaving my niece with a single man who never stays home is negligent, especially since Abigail has never _had _any stability. Her own mother hid her from my brother and constantly traveled, denying her any chance at a normal life."

"Don't you _dare _talk badly about my mother, you bitch!" Abigail shouted, leaping up from her seat.

Sellie couldn't stop herself from laughing at Abigail's outburst. I tried to hide my own amusement as I guided her back into her chair.

It took a moment for things to get back on track. When Donnie was allowed to question Stephanie, he tried to keep control, but she spun everything he asked in ways that made her family look fantastic and me look like a horrible choice of guardian. She argued that I lived a dangerous life and couldn't guarantee being healthy enough to care for a child. It's certainly true that wrestlers are at risk of injury every time they get into the ring, but she made it sound like I could and would die or paralyze myself at any moment, leaving Abigail alone. Donnie suddenly didn't seem to be doing as good of a job of pleading my case.

Sellie used her closing argument to try one last time to leave room for doubt. She was subtle, but the opening was there. Donnie tried to argue my case as best he could.

After all of that, the judge decided to make his decision the following day. I took Abigail back to Jeff's and prayed this wouldn't be our last night together.

"Michael..." Abigail said.

"Yeah, Abby?" I asked.

"Don't let him take me away. _Promise_."

I sighed. "I'm trying, but I can't promise that, Abby. I don't make promises I can't keep. What I _will _promise is I will keep fighting for you with everything I have until this is over."

She nodded. "I know you're trying." She looked at me with a hint of fear in her eyes. "Michael, I know it's not like me, but can I sleep in your bed with you tonight? I don't want to be alone."

I hugged her. "Of course you can," I said. "You never have to ask, Abby. I'm here for you."

And so, I crawled into bed and let the creature curl up in my arms. I held her and rocked her and whispered, "I love you" as she fell asleep, and I desperately tried to convince myself that this would not be the last time I got to hold her.

_**(THE NEXT DAY...)**_

We got to court early. Dixie, James, Jeff, and Matt were with us when we walked inside. Shane, Sellie, and Stephanie came in a few minutes later, and shortly after, the judge arrived.

"Cases like this one are never easy," he began. "You have all suffered a tragic loss. Mr. Hutter, I genuinely believe you wish to do right by this child and honor her mother's wishes."

_That doesn't matter. This is how it has to be, _he thought.

I knew then, with a sickening sense of finality, where this was going.

"However, Mr. McMahon has provided a significant amount of evidence proving that he poses no threat to the child, and in a case such as this where the mother has died and there is no history of abuse, the best thing to do is leave the child in the care of the father. With that being said, I grant custody of the minor child Abigail to her biological father, Shane McMahon."

"No!" Abigail shouted. "I won't go with him! I refuse!"

"Abby-" I started sadly, but I lost my words. I'd failed her, just like I'd failed her mother.

"I want to stay with Michael!" She said to the judge. "Doesn't my opinion count? Why don't _I _get a say?"

"Darlin', you're just a child-" Dixie said.

"Plenty of custody cases involve the child being questioned. Why didn't you do that, Tobias? Why didn't you put me up there?"

"You're still very young, Abigail-" Donnie began.

"I'm not an idiot. I know where I'm supposed to be, and that's with Michael! Make the judge listen to me."

"I can't, honey. We already lost, and in cases like this, we can't appeal."

"We can't?" I asked.

"No, I'm afraid not. The McMahons provided a thorough case. Without cause, we can't get this overturned."

"He's right," Sellie said. She looked sad. _Even when I try to lose, I win, _Sellie thought. _This is... off. Something went wrong here. Someone made sure I couldn't lose this case. _Her thoughts flowed rapidly and I could no longer follow them. "I found every possible loophole and covered each one. You have to let her go, Michael. _Without cause, _there's nothing else you can do."

_I'm sorry, _she thought.

"Don't make me go," Abigail begged. She flung her arms around me and sobbed. I held her, wishing I could do anything to change this.

"I'm so sorry, Abby," I whispered. "I don't have a choice... I love you."

"I know." She clung to me tighter. "I love you, too."

"Shane's a good guy, Abby." It killed me to say it, but she needed to hear it. "Give him a chance, okay? He might surprise you."

"_You _did." She kissed my cheek. "But you're different."

I looked at Shane. "Listen to her. That's the most important thing you can do. She knows what she needs and she'll tell you. She's really bright, so don't talk to her like she's not. She gets cold at night, so always make sure she has an extra blanket. I... um... I have her stuff in Florida. I'll pack it up for you."

"I can buy her whatever she needs, so don't push yourself to do that," Shane said gently. I could tell he felt a little bit bad about this, but not bad enough to change his mind.

"She should have some of the things from my place... Her things and... and Emily's." My voice shook. I tried to keep going. "She won't let you off easy. The kid's a handful, but she's amazing. Appreciate her, Shane. _Love her_. Realize how insanely lucky you are to know her. And... And she hates pancakes. Like, _really _hates them." A few tears slid down my cheeks and I laughed like a crazy man because it hurt less to laugh, but it came out strangled.

I took a deep breath. "I love you, Creature," I told her.

"I'm not going," she said again. Shane tried to reach for her. She screamed and kicked his hand away.

"Sellie, _do your job_ and grab her," Stephanie said sharply.

_She's so happy with him, _Sellie thought. _She loves him and it's obvious what she means to him. This is wrong. There is a special place waiting in hell for me because of this._

"No," Sellie said. "Let her do this on her terms. We just ripped the kid away from someone she loves. Unfortunately, today, that _is_ my job, but forcibly removing her from his arms? That's _not_. Maybe you can call _J&amp;J Security_ to do that bit of dirty work or something."

After about a minute of holding her and comforting her, I got Abigail to stop screaming. "I love you," I said again.

"I love you, too," she whispered. "I know you did everything you could."

It was Donnie who finally pulled her from my arms. "I'm sorry," he said, "but you have to go with your father now or Michael will get in trouble."

She stopped fighting. I watched in silence as Shane took her away. When they were gone, Dixie tried to hug me, but I pulled away. James got a similar reaction. Jeff tried saying, "You can stay with me as long as you need to, Michael."

"Thank you," I said numbly. "I appreciate everything you've done for me, Jeff. I can't ever repay you... But it's time for me to go home."

I went on autopilot for two days, packing everything up and making plans to head home. I didn't really talk to anyone. Dixie and James tried so hard to convince me to let them in, but I couldn't. I was too numb to feel anything at all.

Finally, after I packed the last of my things, I left. I insisted on going alone. It seemed like a century passed before I made it home. I walked into the big, empty house and I knew I'd never see Emily's face light up to greet me again. I'd never hear her laughing as she taught Abigail how to cook hamburgers. I'd never feel her arms around me again. I'd never try to convince Abigail that waffles are made from the same stuff as pancakes and she couldn't like one but hate the other. I'd never see the woman I loved and the strange little creature I'd come to view as my own daughter ever again. It was over and I had lost _everything_.

I curled up on my bed and I realized Emily's side of the bed still smelled like her. If I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, it was like she was with me. I clutched her blanket to my body and buried my face in her pillow, breathing her in, and all of the emotions I'd held back burst through suddenly like an avalanche.

I'd never hurt so much in my entire life. It was like I lost her all over again. I'd lost them _both_. In losing Abigail, I'd lost the last piece of Emily I had left.

For the first time in my life, I didn't want to be alive anymore. It was too hard knowing I was still here when they were both gone. How was I supposed to do this without them? I sobbed, nearly catatonic, for I don't even know how long. Then I stood. I walked into the bathroom and I looked through my medicine cabinet. It was pretty well-stocked with aspirin, because as a telepath, I get a _lot _ of headaches. I could easily swallow two bottles or so and go to sleep, curling up on what had been our bed, breathing her in until I stopped breathing all together.

I poured a glass of water and brought the pills into the bedroom. I sat down on the bed and I unscrewed the first bottle of pills. That was when I heard a knock on my door.

"Seriously?" I asked aloud. Then I laughed. It figured. With my luck, it was a Jehovah's Witness or something. I put the pills down reluctantly and walked to the door.

Standing on the other side was the last person I expected and the first one I should have thought of. "James?" I asked. And slowly, as I looked at my best friend in the world, it hit me.

_You're an idiot, _I thought. _How the hell could you even _think _about killing yourself and leaving everyone behind? They still need you. _James _still needs you._

"I... I know you asked to be alone, but I arrived back at my place and the oddest thing happened… I kept hearing your entrance music. I couldn't get it out of my head and I just... I thought you might need me, like something was trying to tell me that you were actually _in _trouble or something. That sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? I'm sorry."

"No, James," I said. "It's not ridiculous at all." I pulled him into a tight hug and I laughed my ass off. He was baffled, but he let me hug him. When I finally let him go, I said, "Thank you."

"For what?"

"You saved my life tonight, James." I shook my head. "If you hadn't knocked when you did, I would have swallowed a hell of a lot of pills."

He stared at me in shock. "Michael... Oh my God, Michael..." He started to cry.

"It's okay," I reassured him quickly. "As soon as I saw you, I remembered why I'm still here. I remembered why, no matter what, I have to keep fighting." I hugged him again as I added, "And the next time your parents ask you what you've ever done, you can tell them that you saved an idiot from the darkness trying to consume him by leading him back to the light... You _are _the light."

After a few more minutes of crying, James tried to compose himself. "There was something outside waiting for you," he said. He picked up an envelope and handed it to me.

I opened it and studied the paperwork inside. I was confused as I looked it over. "It's some sort of financial record," I said.

"Whose?" James asked.

I looked closer. "The judge! What the hell?" A sizeable amount of money had been wired into his account the day before the hearing. I kept looking. "Holy shit!"

"What is it?" James asked.

"A WWE financial record... James, the judge received a payment to his bank accont for the _exact _amount that someone withdrew from this account two days before!"

"Wait... That means-"

"We have _cause_!"

"Michael, this is _amazing_! But... Who could have sent it?"

I looked at the envelope, but there was no return address. That was when I noticed a doodle inside of the lip of the envelope... _Captain America's _shield.

_Sellie, _I realized. "Oh, I have a pretty good idea," I said. I pulled James into another hug. If he hadn't come, not only would I be dead, but I'd never have seen this.

I smiled at him. "I'm going to get her back," I said. "I told her I'd fight until this was over, and it's not over yet." I took a deep breath and braced myself for the battle that was about to come.


	13. Chapter 13

**THIRTEEN**

I spent the next few days working on building a case to get my creature back. Every spare second I had was spent researching similar cases, talking strategy with Donnie, and sending positive energy into the universe so I might stand a chance against the McMahons.

I was booked for two independent shows that week. I wasn't sure if I was up to going back to work. I was fighting for Abigail, I was recovering from the trauma of the last battle, and I was still deeply grieving Emily. Dixie offered to send another TNA talent in my place to smooth things over, but I couldn't bring myself to disappoint the fans. They didn't know about any of that, and I hated letting them down.

That was how I found myself in New Jersey (of all places) facing Tommy Dreamer (of all people). "Are you sure you can handle this, Michael?" He asked me.

"I need this," I told him. "I need to do something _normal_."

"It's a hardcore match..."

"Good. Don't hold back, Tommy. I _need _to do this, to prove to myself that I still can."

He nodded, then gave me an encouraging pat on the back as only Tommy Dreamer can and I felt better. I love wrestling. You can hug a guy, then go beat the crap out of him, then laugh about it and maybe hug again afterward. This may be a strange way of life, but it makes sense to me.

Tommy didn't hold back. From the second he entered the ring, he hit me with everything he had. He attacked with a kendo stick, because he's Tommy Dreamer, and immediately got in a hit on my chest. When he got in a second hit, I started to focus. For the first time since James had been kidnapped, I focused purely on wrestling. I lost myself in the familiar motions, in the pain, in the excited thoughts of the crowd. It waa great. I felt better than I had in ages.

I retaliated for the kendo stick by hitting Tommy with a chair. I proceeded to grab a ladder. I swung that at him and he doubled over, taking it like a pro. I hit him twice before he ducked and pulled the ladder from my hands. He tossed it aside and hit me with a trash can. I broke out the thumb tacks. Since I poured them on the mat, I am of course the one who ended up getting slammed onto them. My back was bleeding from a bunch of tiny wounds. I sold that for a second before getting up and throwing Tommy into the ringpost. I bashed his head against it a couple of times before we each hit a few standard moves to get from Point A to Point B. I hit the One Percenter, and it would have been over, but suddenly something happened that we hadn't planned.

Out came Austin Aries, for no logical reason whatsoever. The fans gave him a nice pop, because he's Austin Fucking Aries and none of them know he's an evil son of a bitch. I was pretty sure he'd only just put himself back together after Lauren mauled him, and man did he look pissed!

Tommy is the most professional guy in the business, but he hesitated now. I could tell he wasn't sure how to handle this situation. Kayfabe, we were enemies, and Aries was sort of a babyface. In reality, this little prick had essentially caused my girlfriend's death and now he'd apparently come back for me. Tommy was one hundred percent Team Good, but we had a live audience witnessing this and he could only do so much.

Aries had a chainsaw. No, I'm _not_ fucking kidding. _What the fuck? This isn't CZW for God's sake, _I thought.

"I thought your hardcore match needed something more," Aries said as he charged toward me. He dropped his mic.

Tommy got in the way and got the chainsaw away from him. "Sorry, Austin," he said with a grin, "but this promotion hasn't filled out the waivers for chainsaws." He flashed the crowd a reassuring smile, and Aries had to let it go, but when Tommy moved out of the way to put the chainsaw down, Aries grabbed the chair and slammed it hard against my head.

It hit too hard. I could feel blood trickling down from my forehead. I tried to focus, knowing it wasn't over. Aries kicked me in the back of my head twice. That was when my blocks failed me and every single voice in the building rushed into my head at once. I dropped to my knees, clutching my head and trying not to scream from the pain. It was so loud inside my head, I thought it might explode. Aries wasn't done. He swung the ladder toward me. I braced myself for an impact I knew I couldn't stop.

The impact never came. I looked up and saw the most unexpected person on the planet holding the ladder. He'd caught it mid-swing. I blinked at him in confusion.

"Kenny?" I asked aloud. Was I concussed? Probably, but Kenny King really _was _standing there. I'd forgotten he was even on this card.

Kenny picked up a microphone. "This is a tag match now, _bitch_!" He declared.

Tommy looked as confused as I felt, but he smiled and shook Aries' hand like a true professional. The match was restarted. Kenny helped me stand back up.

"Stay close to the corner and focus on Tommy," Kenny said quietly. "I got Aries." I stared at him. "Hang in there. You'll make it out of here alive. I got you, Michael." I nodded, not sure what else to do. I couldn't fight, not for real. My head was way too fucked up. Disturbingly, my life now depended on Kenny King not fucking me over. I was pretty sure I was screwed.

Tommy immediately came at me. He pulled me into a submission so Aries had no excuse to touch me. Kenny kept him busy, attacking hard and not holding back. I may mock the guy, but Kenny's not a bad wrestler. That night, he was fighting a thousand times harder than I'd seen him do before. He took the ladder Aries had meant for me and hit him hard in the head. Aries collapsed.

Tommy eased up on me. I reversed the submission, then somehow hit him hard and knocked him to the mat. I pinned him and the referee counted to three.

It was Kenny who helped me stand back up and raised my hand in victory. He had to take most of my weight on his shoulders to help me to the back, but we made it. When we got back there, he helped me sit down.

"Why?" I managed to ask him.

"Aries would have left me for dead, and Angle _did_," Kenny said. "_You _didn't. We're even."

I nodded. "Thanks."

Kenny left me when Tommy came in the back. "Fuck, Michael... Are you alright?" He asked.

"I'll live," I said.

"Did Kenny King just switch sides?"

"I think he's starting to."

Tommy nodded. "About time. Lashley will be relieved." He studied me. "You need a healer."

"Don't have one tonight." I laughed. "Well, I _did _say I wanted a _real _hardcore match." My head was screaming. "So loud... I can't…" I clutched my head in my hands and started rocking, unable to process much of anything because the voices had gotten so loud.

"Give me five minutes." Tommy left. He returned a short time later with Mark.

"Did you just pull him out of thin air?" I asked.

"He doesn't _fit_ in thin air," Tommy teased.

"You should talk, Walrus," Mark countered. "But no, I was in the area. Jamie's working a show about a mile away." He knelt beside me and immediately forced his shield around me. The voices were silenced instantly. I collapsed against him, unable to keep myself sitting up anymore.

"Did you call a healer?" Mark asked Tommy.

"I can't find one," Tommy said.

"He's lost a lot of blood, Tommy." Their voices were starting to drift off. I couldn't focus. Without the psychic pain to distract me, there was just _physical _pain, and that was bad enough on its own. My mind couldn't process that much pain. I was definitely concussed, and I had a feeling I might be in worse shape than I even knew.

"It's not good when our best healer is the one who needs to be healed," Tommy said. "Any ideas?"

"Not really… Wait, I _do _have an idea. WWE's got a house show three towns over. It's a little bit of a drive, but I can get us there pretty quickly."

"Why WWE?"

"They have a shitload of healers on their roster, including some of the strongest I've ever seen."

"Why would they help me?" I asked. I was barely holding on to the conversation, but I had to try to focus.

"Because this isn't _about_ WWE or TNA, Michael," Mark said. "It's about Team Good versus Team Baddie, and Team Good will help you, regardless of your promotion."

And so, we headed into enemy territory. While Mark may have been welcome as long as he was calling himself Bubba and not Bully, I was not. Still, Mark got me to a hotel and half-carried me upstairs. When he knocked on the door, I wasn't expecting the person on the other side.

Heath "Slater" Miller swore under his breath. Mr. One Man Band might be a joke in WWE, but he was probably the only healer I'd ever met who was stronger than I was. He led us inside and sat me down on his bed.

"They did a real number on you," he said.

"Aries tried to kill him. In front of an audience," Tommy said. 

"That's both incredibly bold _and _incredibly stupid." Heath set to work healing my head before any of my other injuries. He worked very fast. I felt relaxed as his energy spread over me. By the end, even the thumbtack injuries felt better. "You'll be alright now," he promised me. "Be careful, Michael."

"Thanks, Heath," I said. I couldn't even begin to express how much I appreciated his help.

Mark snuck us out of the hotel to avoid stirring up the rumor mills about why EC3 and Tommy Dreamer might be hanging out at a hotel the WWE had rented out. The rest of the night was a blur. By the time I got back to my hotel room, I passed out.

I woke up the next day and was ready to do it again. This time, I had a match against a really green wrestler calling himself Snyder Bateman. No one had heard of him yet, but I didn't mind taking the match. It's good to give back to the next generation sometimes, and maybe the kid would go somewhere someday and remember that Ethan Carter III gave him his first great match. And if not, at least I got to do a Meet and Greet with the fans before the show.

I know you're not going to believe this, but I'm actually kind of shy. It's really humbling to go to a Meet and Greet and meet fans who support you and believe in you. Unlike my character, I'm not the type of guy who thinks I'm perfect and that everyone should be honored to meet me. In fact, part of me is still confused why anyone likes me, considering WWE thought I was a loser. I love meeting my fans and unless it's at a TNA event, I generally break character for them. If you come up to me and you seem to genuinely want to talk to me, you won't meet Ethan Carter III, stuck-up asshole champion who rules TNA and will someday rule the world; you'll meet Michael Hutter, a down-to-earth guy who genuinely cares about people and wants to make the world a safer place for psychics and innocents. This wasn't a TNA event, so I got to be myself.

It's funny, because people are always surprised when they meet me and I show that side of myself. I'll do just about anything to make my fans happy, and most of them appreciate it. It's always a great experience to connect with the fans, and I enjoyed myself that day. I also made a decent amount of money. (Hey, indy wrestlers have to eat, and even though TNA takes care of me nicely, it's still good to have some extra cash once in a while.) It was a good night.

The match was very tame compared to the previous night. Snyder couldn't handle anything hardcore. For the most part, I just talked a lot of trash and threw a few good hits. I let Snyder get one hit off on me before I hit him with the One Percenter, and that was the end of it. It was an easy night, which was a relief after the previous one.

I made it back to my hotel room just before my cell phone began to ring. I was tired and almost didn't answer it. The I saw the Connecticut area code.

I picked up immediately. "Hello?" I asked.

"Michael…" The voice on the other end said. "Michael, something's happened… God, this is my fault… I trusted her… I never thought… I just…" I realized the rambling sounded familiar.

"Shane?" I asked.

"I made a stupid choice, Michael… I mean, she just… She came over saying she wanted to take Abigail out for some girl time, and I let her… I never thought she'd hurt a kid, you have to believe me… But she… She was supposed to be back here four hours ago, and she's still out… And she won't pick up her cell phone… I don't know, I just have this terrible feeling…"

"Shane, slow down. _Where _is Abigail?"

"I don't know," Shane said as my world crashed down around me. "She's missing, Michael. Stephanie has her."


	14. Chapter 14

**FOURTEEN**

I drove to Connecticut in record time. When I got to Shane's place, he looked broken. "I'm an idiot," he said by way of greeting. I couldn't help but agree.

"Tell me everything you know," I told him.

"There's not much. Stephanie came by and said she just wanted to take her out for a little while, some girl time to get to know each other. She's a kid, Michael. She's _my _kid. I never thought Steph would hurt her." He was frantic now. "What do we do?"

"You do nothing. Stay here. They'll eat you alive, Shane. You're the only McMahon with a somewhat pure heart. You'd be a perfect sacrifice for them. Stay safe. I'm going after her."

"You can't go alone! It's too dangerous."

"There's no other choice. We don't have time to wait. Stephanie's had her for too long already." I tried not to panic. Panicking wouldn't help her.

"They could kill you, Michael."

"If it means she's safe, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. I'm leaving. I'll find her. Just stay here. I'll be in touch."

I left his house quickly. I didn't know where she was, but I figured I could track her pretty easily. I focused on her energy and tried to find her. That didn't work, so I changed my focus. Wherever she was, the bad guys had her. Tracking them might be my best bet.

I focused my attention on Khoya, who I figured wouldn't be as good at hiding his energy as some of the others. The guy was a dangerous ball of rage, and that gave off a specific signature. I found it quickly enough, and he wasn't too far away. I followed his trail.

When I arrived, I knew I was in the right place. I began searching for any sign of Abigail, but found nothing. I could hear the thoughts of some of the people nearby.

_They'd better keep their hands to themselves, _Stephanie thought. _We're supposed to recruit her, and I don't think she'll be too willing to join our side if they try to molest her. I also suspect she'll destroy them before they get anywhere. _

I knew Stephanie was probably right. Abigail could defend herself. The problem was, the bad guys really _might _try to hurt her, or God forbid do what Stephanie was thinking and that terrified me. The idea of anyone even _thinking _of doing that to Abigail made me want to kill everyone.

_Little brat isn't so tough now, _Khoya thought. I searched deeper, desperate to know what he'd done to her. I could see what he saw. Abigail was alive. She was sitting in a dark room, her back to a corner, staring at the rest of the room in case a threat appeared. She had pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She didn't look hurt, but it was obvious she was frightened.

_I'm coming, Abby, _I silently promised. I hoped she could hear me.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get by the magic surrounding the place. I knew I'd never find her on my own. There was only one choice here. I couldn't catch them by surprise. I had to do more than that. And so, I devised the brilliant plan of allowing them to capture me. It was dangerous and incredibly stupid, but it was the only way I'd gain access into the building where they were holding her.

I let my energy radiate. Sure enough, they sensed it. Khoya was the one who came out after me. "You're a fool," he informed me. He was probably right about that in this instance, but this was literally the only plan I had. I knew it was dangerous. I knew I'd get hurt. I also knew it was the _only _way I could get near Abigail, and that was the only thing that mattered.

Khoya attacked me quickly. He was a brutal guy by his very nature, and he didn't hold back. He hit me more times than I could count. I tried to defend myself. I had to fight if I wanted to live. The idea was to get capture, not killed. Unfortunately, Khoya had a superhuman strength unlike anything I'd ever seen before. He beat me mercilessly. I could feel my flesh bruising. Muscles screamed as his fists came down again and again. Some of my bones snapped and broke. I suspected something may have ruptured internally. I lost the ability to focus when my head got cracked open. There was blood, _so much blood_.

I collapsed, unable to fight any longer. Satisfied, Khoya picked me up like a fucking rag doll and carried me inside. He tossed me unceremoniously into a dark room that reminded me of a cell. It was damp. I suspected we were in a basement. It almost felt like a cave. He laughed as he closed the door and disappeared.

I don't know how long I was left there, alone, bleeding, and probably dying slowly. I do know it hurt like hell, but I did my best to think. I had to get out of that room. I had to get to Abigail, and this might be my only chance.

I shivered when the door opened and I heard a dark, cold chuckle. "Well, Goddamn, Son," a familiar voice drawled at me. "You look like shit."

_Storm, _I registered. I was officially fucked. If they'd sent in Storm, I wasn't getting out of there alive.

He crouched beside me. "Damnit, Michael," he mumbled. "What did you think you were going to accomplish by coming here alone like that?" I didn't answer him. "Getting caught intentionally? You're insane. Khoya could have killed you. I'm not sure why he didn't."

"It's not like you care," I pointed out.

Storm shook his head. Then he pulled out a flask and said, "Drink this."

"No thank you. I'm doing just fine sober."

"It ain't booze, you moron. It's an elixir. It will heal you a little bit. Drink it."

I stared at him. "Why the fuck should I trust you?"

"You really haven't figured it out yet? I now my shield is good, but damn, I fooled the best telepath we have!" He laughed. "I'm a double agent, Michael."

"You're Team Baddie's number two guy. No way you're not evil."

"I'm damn good at my job. If I was evil, I wouldn't have cleared Angle and Aries out so y'all could come in and try to save little Spud."

"Wait, you knew?"

" 'Course I know! I sensed y'all as soon as you got close. I tried to make it easier for you. I tried to protect James, too, as much as I could. The thing is, when you're as high up as I am, you have to do things you don't like to protect your cover."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "But… You were there that day."

"Yes, and I didn't touch any of you, remember? I just tried to help in whatever subtle way I could." He took off his hat and bowed his head. "Michael, I am _so _sorry about Emily. I liked that girl. She had spirit! She deserved better than what she got. If I could have saved her, I would have, but I wasn't there when it happened."

I nodded. I could tell he was telling the truth. "I believe you…"

"But I'll be damned… _Damned _if I let anything like that happen to that little girl of hers."

"Wait… How can you help?"

"That's easy. Drink the damn elixir and we can talk. It won't heal you fully, Michael. Not even halfway. But it _will _clear your head and give you back complete access to your psychic abilities."

I knew I had to take a chance and do as he said. I downed the drink, which tasted like a nasty mix of bitter pineapples and minty candy canes. It was possibly the strangest thing I've ever consumed, but it did the trick, and within seconds, my mind started to clear. "Thank you," I finally said.

"You're welcome. Now hit me."

"What?"

"Hit me. Hard. A few times. Make it look convincing."

"I'm confused."

"You're going to escape, Michael. I'm going to try to fight you, but you will overpower me and kick my ass. Then, you're going to run down that hallway there, go eleven doors, and break into that eleventh room. Little Miss Abigail is in there waiting for you. Be careful, though. She won't be unguarded. This is the best I can do for you."

"It's more than enough."

"Good. Now hit me."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

And so, I threw several punches at James Storm. Although the injuries were fairly superficial, I knew I hurt him a little. He took a deep breath and finally said, "Now knock my ass out."

"Storm-"

"Yes, I'm sure, and yes, I know it's going to suck. It's the only way to help you without blowing my cover and getting myself killed. Just do it. You won't get an opportunity like this again."

I hesitated, but finally hit him hard directly in his temple. It did the trick and he fell to the floor. I grabbed his keys and ran, counting doors as I went. When I reached the eleventh door, I opened it. I could see Abigail, still sitting the way she'd been earlier.

Horror came over her face as she screamed, "Michael, watch out!"

I spun around just in time to see the last person I ever wanted to see. Kurt Angle, the son of a bitch who'd murdered my girlfriend, was about to try to do the same to me. I moved just in time. We fought for a few minutes, with each of us getting hits in on the other, before he grabbed me and bashed my head against the wall. The injury was bad, especially on top of what remained of the injuries Khoya had caused. I fell to the floor.

I realized that Nelson, MVP, and Brandon were all in the room now, too. I was outnumbered. MVP came toward me, a ritual blade in his hands, and raised it above me. As it was coming down, Nelson grabbed it, snapping MVP's hand in the process.

"What are you _doing_?" MVP demanded. "You're on _our _side!"

"Not so much, actually," Nelson said. He'd apparently decided it was time to blow his cover. He turned the knife on MVP.

MVP fought hard and screamed like a bitch trying to avoid the knife. It pierced his flesh just as he used a second knife to slit Nelson's throat. I watched in horror as Nelson's blood poured out of his body. Together, they both bled out slowly. Their blood pooled around them, creating a strange puddle on the ground that seemed to summon a portal. The magic spilling out around them blended together and I knew their energies had become joined in a way that couldn't be undone. I also realized they were both dead.

_Oh fuck, _I thought. _This isn't happening._ We'd already had so many casualties, and now not only was that asshole MVP dead, but he'd taken Nelson with him.

Angle walked toward Abigail, ready to do God only knew what to her. I focused easily, thanks to the elixir, and put a protective veil around Abigail. It turned her instantly invisible, and nothing could touch her. It was taking all of my energy, my very life force, but I didn't care. Abigail was safe. That was the only thing that mattered.

Apparently, the leader of Team Baddie, who I will only call by his unofficial title, Chaos, was unhappy with what was happening, because he appeared then. He took the form of a giant snake and slithered around me. On another day, I'd have been able to fight, but seeing as how I was dying, I was a sitting duck. He lashed out at me and I began losing more blood. My energy was fading. I was going to die and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

I watched as he worked some sort of spell around Nelson and MVP. He was fully focused on them, no longer caring enough to pay attention to me. Slowly but surely, their blood began flowing back into their bodies. He was probably only intending to save MVP now that Nelson had revealed he was a double agent, but because of how they'd been killed, to save one, he had to save both. Although they remained unconscious, I was relieved as their chests began rising and falling. Nelson was alive. Finally, some good news.

I was feeling faint. I had very little energy left, but I had to protect Abigail. _Michael, _someone whispered.

I searched for the source. I knew that voice. _God, _did I know it. And I had missed it so much…

_Emily, _I thought. _I've made you up because I'm losing so much energy._

_No, Michael, _she said. _I'm real. I'm here. I'm with you, Michael. _I could see her then. She still looked beautiful, and she was radiating light. She took my hand and I realized I was seeing a ghost. That's not actually normal for me. I don't usually see dead people.

_I'm dying, _I thought.

_Yes… But you can't, Michael. You have to stay here. You have to survive. You're meant to._

_I miss you, _I thought desperately.

_I miss you, too, but I'm here. I'm always with you. You can't let go, Michael. Abby needs you. They _all _need you. _

_I'm trying… So weak… _

_Hang on. I promise help is on the way. _

She vanished and I felt empty. I missed her so much. All I wanted was for her to come back. Dying wouldn't be so terrible if I was with her, although I _was_ trying to live. I _had_ to try. She was right. People still needed me.

Angle came toward me, determined to kill me. I assumed he thought if I died, he'd find Abigail, but my cloaking magic was strong. Even if I died, she'd remain hidden. I was ready for the attack when something unexpected happened.

Angle hit the floor. I had no idea how. I looked up and saw Brandon standing over him, a chair in his hands, and not the kind we used in the ring. This thing was much harder and would do much more damage.

Brandon knelt beside me. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I never meant for Emily to get hurt… I liked her… Please forgive me, Michael. I couldn't let him do this. I couldn't let him hurt a little girl… She's just a kid… It's not right."

I barely had the energy to do it, but I nodded. "I know," I told him. Brandon had been one of the good guys originally. He'd gone double agent at great personal risk to try and help Team Good, and somehow the leader of Team Baddie had gotten to him. He'd lost his way, but his heart was still good. He needed forgiveness or he'd never find his way back to us. "It's okay. You did good today."

He looked at me gratefully. "How can I help?" He asked.

"Just try to keep your leader away from me, okay? I can't… I can't defend myself right now."

He nodded. "You've got it."

I could feel the very last of my energy pouring out of me. I was going to die, but at least I knew Brandon would protect Abigail if it came down to it. I started fading away. I saw Emily again.

_I love you, _I thought.

_I love you, too, _she replied. _Stop saying your goodbyes. You're going to make it._

_I'm dying, Em. I can feel it. _

_Don't give up. You're better than that. _I felt her arms come around me. I could feel her kiss me quickly. And then, I became distracted.

An army of angry wrestlers burst into the room. I spotted Ken, Jeff, Matt, James, Tommy, Mark, Jamie, Lauren, Wes, Eddie, and Drew. Brandon put his hands up so they'd know he wasn't the threat. Ken and James both looked to me and I managed to nod to verify that Brandon was on our side for today at least.

They surrounded Angle and Mr. Chaos. Angle was easier to attack, and they did. I saw the amount of blood he was losing and knew it would be a while before he got back up. It was when Chaos dove straight at my friends that I knew what I had to do.

I closed my eyes and opened the biggest portal I could conjure with my limited energy. It mildly amused me that of everyone there, it was Jamie and Lauren who kicked him hard so that he fell backward right into my portal. I sealed it before he could escape.

That was when I stopped breathing. My eyes rolled into the back of my head. My heart stopped. In a split second, I felt myself drop dead.

That should have been the end of the story. I know how this works. I've done it before in other lives, pushed myself too far and killed myself in an instant trying to save someone else. I always manage to save whoever I'm trying to, but I pay the price.

I felt my soul leave my body, but I didn't go anywhere. I could see Emily fully now. She grabbed my hand. _Don't go, _she told me. _Stay right here. _

_It's over, Em. I'm dead, _I told her. _I overdid it, but at least he's gone. It will take a while for him to find his way back. They're safe. _

_Just hold on to me. Please._

_Always. _I wrapped my ethereal arms around her and kissed her. It wasn't the same as when we'd both been alive, but it was enough. This was a better way to remember her than kissing her dead body had been.

I shuddered as something shot through me. _What the hell was that? _I asked.

_Shhh. Just relax, my love, _Emily whispered. She held me closer to her.

I felt it again. Abigail had reappeared now that she was safe. I saw her sobbing over me. "No!" She was crying. "Not Michael… Please… Please don't die! Don't leave me!"

And suddenly, I wanted to live, more than anything. I wanted to undo what I had done, but it was too late. I'd saved them, and it was worth it, but now I was dead. I couldn't fix that.

"It's alright, wee lass," Drew said gently.

"He's dead!" Abigail protested.

"Give me a chance, Lass." He touched my chest, and I felt it again, that sharp burst of energy shooting through me. "Don't ya _dare _go, Michael," he said. He closed his eyes and I felt him touching my soul. _By the power of the many Underworlds in my domain, I call thee back! Return! _

That was when I realized the truth about Drew Galloway. He wasn't just a damn good wrestler, an amazing guy, a Scottish superhero… He was a _God_. Like, literally. Drew had abilities beyond most of the rest of us, and he apparently had power over death.

I felt myself being pulled away from Emily. She nodded at me and said, _I love you. I'll always be here. Take care of her, Michael. Take care of our girl. _

With a sharp jerk, my body began breathing and my heart began beating. My eyes opened up moments later. James and Abigail were both sobbing on me as I came around.

"Don't ever do that to me again!" Abigail shouted.

"I quite agree!" James added.

I pulled them closer to me. "I'm alright," I promised. "We're all okay now." I turned to Drew. "You're just full of secrets, huh?"

"Indeed," Drew said. "Welcome back, Lad."

"Thank you."

It was over. I held Abigail in my arms as she snuggled against me. I knew I had to take her back to Shane, but I wanted to enjoy at least a couple of minutes with her first.

James offered to drive us back to Shane. He stayed outside while I carried her to his door. She'd passed out in my arms from exhaustion.

Shane took one look at us and started to cry. "You're alive," he said. "Both of you…"

"Yeah," I said. "She's tired. Where can I put her down?"

He led me inside and to Abigail's bedroom. I tucked her in before heading back outside with him. He studied me. "You look like you've been to hell and back," he said finally.

"I _have_." I sighed. "She's safe now. Stephanie and the others are still out there, but I put a shield on her. It should last for a while…"

"I'll never be able to protect her, _will _I?" Shane asked suddenly.

"What?" I asked.

"I can't keep her safe. I love her. _God, _I love her. She's like this tiny adult and she's perfect and I can't believe she's mine, but… I can't protect her like you can, Michael."

"You need to learn. It's your job."

"I want to, but no matter what I do, it won't be enough… I understand it now, Michael. I screwed up, and I nearly got her killed, and then _you _nearly got killed trying to save her."

"Don't worry about me. I'm fine."

"She'll never be safe with me. My sister will always be after her." Shane started to cry, which was weird to witness. "I was wrong, Michael. Abigail belongs with _you_. Any man who'll risk his own life to protect a child is a good guardian for her, and although I'd have done it, too, I don't think I'd have been able to successfully rescue her. I'll have Sellie draw up the paperwork in the morning."

I was in shock and not sure I understood him. "What paperwork?" I asked.

He sighed. "I'm signing custody of Abigail over to you, Michael. You're the one she should be with. I know you'll keep my daughter safe." I could tell how much it hurt him to admit this. "I mean, if you're still willing to take her-"

"Of course I am!" I sighed with relief. "You're doing the right thing for her, Shane."

"Yeah, I finally am…" He looked at me. "Stay the night. I have the space and I think you should be here when she wakes up. Besides, you look like you need some rest."

Coming back from the dead probably has that effect on people, so I was sure he was right. "Okay," I said. "Thank you, Shane."

"No," he said. "Thank _you_ Michael. You saved her life today."

He left me after that. I crawled into the bed in his guestroom and blacked out, finally giving in to my exhaustion. That night, my dreams were of Emily. She held me in her arms and we talked all night, although I can't remember most of what we talked about. When I woke up the following morning, for the first time since I'd lost her, I didn't feel quite so empty.

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **__There's still more to come! Thank you for sticking with this story so far. We're getting close to the end now. I appreciate all of the reviews._


	15. Chapter 15

**FIFTEEN**

I woke up to the sound of laughter coming from outside. It took me a minute to remember where I was. I couldn't see Emily anymore, but I knew she was close. I still missed her, but I didn't hurt as badly anymore.

I stood up and made myself as presentable as I could. I got a look at my reflection and cringed. Yesterday, my shirt had been white. Nearly every inch of it was red now. My body had healed a bit. I wasn't sure if that was because I'd died and needed to be healed to be resurrected or what, but I wasn't in nearly as much pain as I'd expected to be. Still, there _was _enough pain to make it a little hard to move around. My hair was beyond a mess and blood had crusted into it. It was no wonder Shane had seemed so freaked out when he saw me.

I decided the first thing I needed to do was take a shower, and since the guestroom had a bathroom, this wasn't a hard task. I took my ruined shirt off and saw the bruises that had formed across my chest and stomach. Khoya had really done a number on me, and since most of those injuries hadn't been life-threatening and I suspected Drew wasn't really a healer, they were still there.

_No wonder Storm told me I looked like shit, _I thought. My pants weren't as bad as my shirt, although some of my blood had fallen onto them from my chest and head. My legs were relatively unharmed. I finished undressing and got into the shower. It hurt. The water turned red as I washed the blood off of myself. I stayed in there for as long as I could stand the pain, then got out and dried myself off. I was clean. It was progress.

I dressed the lower half of my body, but there was no way I was putting that bloody shirt back on. I'm a wrestler. That was more than enough clothing for me anyway.

When I walked outside, someone whistled. "Looking good, Hutter," Sellie said as she spotted me. She was downing a Vegas Fuel, because just like me, that's how Sellie rolls. I suspected it was her fourth or fifth. She looked much more like herself today, with her trademark pigtails and a _Captain America _t-shirt. Best of all, she was smiling. This was the Sellie I knew. This was the woman who'd risked her career and life to try to do the right thing.

I hugged her. "Thanks, Sel," I said.

Abigail ran into my arms. I realized she'd been sitting with Drew and James. I hugged her as Drew said, "I came ta check on ya. How are ya feeling?"

"I'm okay," I reassured him. I could hear his thoughts again. He'd never had to bring someone back from the dead before.

"Thank God," James said. I could tell he hadn't slept.

Shane walked into the living room with the last person I expected. "Michael!" Dixie cried out. She ran to me and pulled both me and Abigail into her arms. "I came as soon as I heard."

"Did you just drive here from Nashville?" I asked in shock.

"Of _course _not. I took the jet. Oh, sweet God, Michael, are you alright?"

"Thanks to Drew. How did you guys get to me anyway? Not all of you were close by, and no one knew where I was."

Drew smiled at me sadly. "She told us, lad," he said.

"Who did?"

"Emily. She appeared to Jeff, Matt, and I and begged us to save ya. Somehow, she opened up a portal. She got us to ya, and the others were right behind us."

I was stunned. I held Abigail tighter. "Even though she's gone, she's still got my back..." I smiled sadly.

"You can't leave me, Michael," Abigail told me. "Okay?"

I looked at Sellie. She nodded and motioned toward a bunch of paperwork. "I'm not going anywhere, Creature. I never have to leave you again."

Abigail seemed satisfied by this. She released me, and Dixie resumed hugging me. Abigail walked over to Sellie.

"Permission to hug?" Sellie asked her.

"Granted," Abigail said after some consideration. She hugged Sellie back as she said, "Thank you for helping us. I know you weren't supposed to."

"It was the right thing to do. You're going where you belong now." Sellie turned to Shane. "You did a good thing today, Shane. I know this is hard for you. I'm very proud of you."

He nodded. "I know. I just want to do right by her," he said.

Abigail surprised me then. She walked over to Shane and gave him a very quick hug and a kiss on his cheek. "Thank you, Shane. Maybe you aren't so bad," she said.

He looked like he might cry. "Would you mind if I still see you once in a while?" He asked.

Abigail looked at me. I nodded. "Okay," she said. "Just keep your evil sister away when you do."

He smiled at her sadly. "I promise."

"Now go get Michael a shirt before he gets cold."

I laughed. Shane nodded and went to go find me one. That was when Dixie really looked at me for the first time.

"You could have _died_, Michael," Dixie said as she took in my wounds.

"Technically, I _did_," I admitted.

Dixie looked horrified. "Oh my Lord... Sweet Jesus, I almost lost you..." She looked at me sternly, as only a family member can, and said, "Do not ever... _ever _do anything that stupid and suicidal sgain, Michael! You have a _family_, and we have your back in any fight. You call us, do you hear me?"

"Yes, Aunt D," I replied.

As Shane returned with a shirt for me, even he was laughing at that. Dixie just pulled me closer to her. I let her, relaxing in her arms. I hadn't realized how shaky I still was, but I felt better now. As Dixie held me, my body finally registered that it was over, and we were all safe.

Of course, it wasn't _really _over. The battle between good and evil never ends. But we'd won this battle. We'd faced off against the leader of Team Baddie and we were still standing. Now, there was one issue left unresolved.

_I will find you, Carlos. I swear it with everything I have, _I thought. _I'm going to save you._ After all, I had made a promise.


	16. Chapter 16

**SIXTEEN**

Three weeks later, Abigail and I found a new place to live. Neither of us liked living in our house without Emily, so we moved into a new one to make new memories. Right after this, TNA resumed filming. It was the first taping since Emily had died. As hard as it was, life was moving on, and we had to let it.

Nelson and Brandon had both run for their lives. That's what happens when you betray Team Baddie. Nelson, however, made it quite clear that while MVP had indeed come back stronger, so had _he_, and he wasn't about to let MVP hurt anyone. He was available if we needed him.

With Low-Ki and Homicide no longer on the TNA roster, the BDC was as good as over. What killed it was not the battle between good and evil, but a contract breech that involved a lot of lying and some bad decisions. All of the footage featuring Hernandez had to be cut, and that pissed MVP off more than anything else ever had. He quit right after it was announced that this had happened, tweeting "The BDC is dead."

Right after that, Kenny King quit, too. He cited the end of the BDC as his reason, but I suspected he was running as far from Team Baddie as he could get. He hadn't officially quit their team, but this was his way of passively doing just that.

When I saw Storm, he nodded at me subtly in acknowledgement. He'd _also _announced he was leaving TNA soon, but not because he was running. Chaos simply wanted to move him somewhere else to fight the battle. Storm was his top man. He needed him now more than ever.

At the same time, Jeff Jarrett was back and bringing Global Force Wrestling to TNA. Jarrett had joined up with Team Baddie and I knew we'd be facing another huge battle soon, but that is a whole other story. My main concern was rescuing Carlos before he ended up stuck in the middle of that mess.

After the first night of tapings concluded, I decided it was time for the rescue mission. Jeff had taken Abigail for the night because he was teaching her how to paint like him. I knew she was safe. I was ready to go after Carlos. I nearly made it to my car before James came joggingbafter me and sternly told me, "Not alone."

"Did you just read my mind?" I asked.

"You're thinking too loud." He smirked at me.

"Wow. So _that's _how that feels."

"Seriously, though, MichaeL, I _know _you. We're back in Florida, at the Impact Zone, our home. This is where we're strongest, and since Carlos lives here, he's stronger here as well. If we have any chance of saving him, it's here. And you are _not _doing it alone."

"James, it's too dangerous. I can't risk them hurting you again."

He looked at me seriously. "Michael, it's been long enough. I've stayed as far from danger as I could, with the exception of the day we rescued you and Abigail. I go home every night and do you know what I do? I read, I watch television, I sit on bloody YouTube watching videos of people's cats doing tricks, but do you know what I _don't _do? I don't _sleep_. At _all_. I'm so bloody terrified all the time, I can't do it. Every time I sleep, I see them. I see what they did to me... I keep replaying it, _all _of it, and it won't bloody _stop_. I see Emily, and what happened to her... I see _you, _so broken I was afraid we'd never get you back... I see every bloody horrible second of it, over and over and over again. I'm stuck there, Michael."

"It's called PTSD, James. It's normal. It sucks, but we can help you-"

"Talking won't help. I don't have the words. I feel like I am what they insisted I was, just a pathetic joke who needs to be rescued and isn't worth a bloody thing. Do you want to know what will help me? Proving them _wrong_. I _need _to help, Michael. I need to fight. I need to know that I can contribute something good. Stop protecting me and _let me fight_."

I looked at him, so strong even if he didn't realize it, and I couldn't deny him this. "Okay," I ssid simply.

"Okay?" He repeated.

"Okay, let's go kick some ass. _Together._"

"Well, Amen to _that_!" Dixie said from behind us.

I turned to face her. "How long were you there?" I asked.

"Long enough."

"How did I not realize that? I'm slipping."

"Matt and Jeff have been giving me lessons on blocks."

"Jerks." I said.

"Can you teach _me_?" James asked at the same time.

She laughed. "So when do we leave?"

"_We_? Uh-uh, no way, D!" I protested.

"Darlin', I know you mean well, but you are _not _doing this without me. Carlos is one of _my _people. I couldn't help Frankie, but I'll be _damned _if I'm leaving his cousin in danger."

"Dixie, this is too dangerous. You could get killed."

"So could _you_, Michael, and I'm sick and tired of you acting like it's okay for _you _to risk your life but not for anyone else. We're Team Good, right? We fight to protect the innocent. I'm not just some damsel in distress, and I'm sick of y'all treating me like I can't help. They have taken too dang much from us. This is war. I am Dixie Carter! I _never _back down, and I am _done _sitting on the sidelines!"

"You _did _say together, Michael... And the three of us are a team," James said.

He was right, and Dixie's speech was possibly the most epic promo I'd ever heard in my life. "Fine. But stay close to me," I said.

They exchanged glances like excited children who'd finally been invited to play with the grown-ups. Even if they were two of the greenest psychics on Team Good, I knew if they had my back, we would not fail. We set out to locate Carlos. Iopemed a portal to get us closer to him and hoped this wouldn't end with any more tragedies.

It certainly didn't _start _with a tragedy. Instead, upon locating his energy, we found three members of Team Baddie sitting in a room together drunk off their asses. I've got to say, what we witnessed was a mix between a comedy and a horror movie.

MVP was sitting with Aries and Khoya. I couldn't see Carlos, but I sensed him. As Aries tossed back another shot, the most unexpected music came on. What was even _more _unexpected was the fact that Khoya and Aries immediately began singing and got up to dance. (If you can call it that. Khoya had rhythm, but Aries was so drunk he was stumbling around like a complete and total spaz.)

_"Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want," _Aries began.

_"So tell me what you want, what you really, really want..."_ Khoya answered.

_Holy. Shit, _was all I could think as Dixie covered her mouth with both hands to keep from laughing. Sure enough, it continued.

_"If you want my future, forget my past," _Aries sang.

_"If you wanna get with me, better make it fast," _Khoya continued.

MVP stared at them. "You do _know _I can never un-see this, right?" He asked them. I couldn't help but mentally second that sentiment.

_"If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends," _ they sang in unison. _"Make it last forever, friendship never ends. If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give. Taking is too easy, but that's the way it is."_

"My eyes and ears are burning," I whispered as I continued watching. It was like a bad car accident. It horrified me, but I couldn't look away.

"Actually, Khoya's Scary Spice impression is spot-on, but Aries can't hold a candle to Sporty," James said. I stared at him. "What? I'm British, Mate. We _love _those girls."

I could see Dixie struggling harder not to laugh. She looked at me and whispered, "Remind me why we're supposed to be afraid of them again?"

They continued to sing and dance, oblivious to our presence. MVP groaned, "I'm surrounded by idiots." He downed a beer and chased it with another. I couldn't blame him.

As the song came to a close, I spotted Carlos. More accurately, _he _spotted _me_.

"We have company," he said in a cold, harsh voice that barely sounded like his. He was practically hissing. My heart sank. They'd done a real number on the kid.

"Don't stop on _our _account," Dixie said, taking the opportunity for sarcasm and running with it like a pro. I was so proud. "Y'all are fantastic. It's like _American Idol _up in here... The part where they reject people, anyway."

Aries looked angry, MVP looked mildly amused, and Khoya had the grace to look embarassed. It was Carlos, however, who approached us. He flung a ball of fire at Dixie that I was barely able to pull her out of the way of in time. She let out a quick gasp, but regained her composure almost immediately.

"Don't mock them," Carlos said coldly.

"Eliminate them," MVP said.

Carlos looked at me and tried to fling another fireball. Dixie shouted my name as I dove to avoid getting hit.

"Don't do this, Carlos!" I pled with him. I searched his eyes for any sign of the boy we'd known. He stared back at me, his eyes cold and nearly dead, but I could feel the desperation behind his gaze. Carlos was lost, but he could still be saved. "I _know _this isn't you."

"Ah, but it _is_," a female voice said. I turned to see Stephanie standing behind me. "Hello, Everyone. So lovely to see you all again."

Dixie stiffened beside me. Her hatred radiated off of her. I was pretty sure she wanted to rip Stephanie's head off herself. She took a breath before saying, "Oh, Darlin', aren't you a little old to work so hard at rebelling against your daddy?"

Stephanie didn't deny that this was exactly what she was doing. Vince McMahon was in no way, shape, or form one of the good guys, but he knew how to pick sides in a fight. Ever since Chaos had taken over, Vince had taken _his _guys and called a truce with Team Good. He was well aware that following Chaos would only get everyone killed, and I'm fairly certain that old son of a bitch _never _plans on dying. He might publicly age and perhaps even "die" one day, but Vince McMahon is immortal. Evil like that never dies; it simply takes on a new form. No one can live a high profile life in the public eye forever without becoming a lab rat, so immortals who are smart will age themselves in public using a glamour. The Undertaker is another example. Billy Gunn is a _bad _example, because he's immortal, too, but he doesn't let himself age. Triple H has yelled at him more than once for that.

Anyway, my point is, Dixie was right. Stephanie was a thirty-something-year-old woman whose life revolved around fighting back against her evil father and trying to provoke him and prove _she _was in charge now. Don't get me wrong. I'm told there was a time when Stephanie was a good person with an exceptionally pure heart, but years of abuse at the hands of Vince had destroyed that in her. She'd rotted from the inside out and now all that remained was a bitter bitch bent on revenge. I can't entirely blame her, but I can't defend the things she's done, either.

"Finish this, Carlos. Show them what you really are," Stephanie said.

Carlos lunged at me. Dixie reacted, throwing up her arms. As I've said before, Dixie's abilities were still new. I knew it wasn't intentional, but Dixie had shot to kill. I tried to stop it, but I couldn't get between her and Carlos. James, however, could.

He must have felt the danger because James dove in front of the lethal jolt of energy. It hit him hard and he crumpled to the floor.

"James!" I screamed. I cannot even begin to describe what I felt in that moment. I was fairly positive I'd just watched my best friend die before my eyes. I was shaking as I raced toward him. Dixie was crying.

"I... I didn't know!" She told me. "I didn't know what I was doing until it was done... Oh God... Is he alright?"

Aries, Khoya, and MVP were laughing. Stephanie smiled smugly. "That's what happens when you bring along the _mascot_," she said. "They get killed."

I knelt beside James. _Bloody hell, _he thought. _That _really _bleedin' hurt!_

I almost cried with relief. Instead, I used the situation to our advantage. I hoped Dixie would forgive me, but this had to be convincing.

"No... James, not you!" I shouted. I finally let my tears of relief fall under the cover of grief.

Dixie fell to her knees. "What have I done?" She cried. "Oh God..."

I debated telling her. It broke my heart seeing her fall apart like that, and I could slip the thought into her mind. The problem was, they were paying close attention, and they'd know as soon as I did it that James was alive because Dixie's blocks had shot up. It would take a noticeable effort to get through to her.

_Michael, I know you're listening, and I know you're lying through your teeth, _James thought. _Keep it up. I have a plan._

_Wanna clue me in, James? _I asked.

_It's better if you don't know. Trust me, Michael._

_With every ounce of my soul, Buddy._

And so, Dixie genuinely grieved, I pretended to do the same by focusing on how close I'd just come to losing James forever, and James played possum.

"Enough," Stephanie said. "Gentlemen, focus on that pathetic excuse for a man." She motioned toward me and I debated if I should bother being offended by that. "_I'm _going to show Dixie Carter what happens when you cross a McMahon!"

I was about to jump in to protect Dixie when James thought, _I've got this. Distract the others. Get to Carlos._

_Aye-aye, Captain,_ I thought in response. Somehow, James had taken control of this rescue mission. Everything now depended on Rockstar Spud, and I was completely okay with that. This was his moment, and he needed to have it as much as _we _needed him to.

The goons came at me. Aries tripped and fell over. I couldn't keep from laughing at that.

"Is that idiot _drunk_?" Stephanie demanded. "I swear to God, do I have to do _everything_?"

"They're _all _drunk," Carlos informed her.

"But not you?"

"Straightedge," he reminded her. Even evil, the kid had a code.

Stephanie rolled her eyes, probably feeling twitchy as images of CM Punk flashed through her mind. She recovered quickly and pulled out a ritual blade. Aries was still on the floor. Khoya and MVP were trying to help him stand back up.

_Now, James! _I thought.

As Stephanie raised the blade over her head and brought it down toward Dixie, James jumped up and in a ninja-quick moment, he knocked Stephanie to the ground with a Goddamned hurricanrana and followed it up by immediately poking a pressure point and making her pass out. This wasn't a wrestling match, it was real life, and he literally leapt off the ground and got enough height to pull that off.

I stared at James in utter shock. "Seriously?" I asked him.

"Well it _worked, _didn't it?" James asked me. "I've had a lot more training in the ring than with psychic stuff, Michael. I figured there was a better chance of this working than some unpracticed psychic parlor trick."

Dixie was staring at him in confusion. "James?" She asked as more tears fell down her cheeks. "You're alive?"

"Yes. I'm sorry, but we couldn't let on."

She flung her arms around him. "I thought I'd _killed_ you!"

"I'm tougher than I look." He embraced her. "I'm all right, Dixie. Really."

I looked at the drunk idiots and shrugged before opening a portal and kicking them through it. Then I looked at Carlos, the only one still standing. "Can we talk?" I asked him.

"James..." Carlos whispered. "You could have died. For _me_. Why? Why would you do that?"

"Because you're my _friend_, Mate, and I care about you," James said.

"You shouldn't," Carlos said. He sounded confused and broken, but no longer evil. He was lost, but he desperately wanted to be rescued. "I'm evil, James. I'm worthless. This is the only thing I have to offer."

"No, Mate. You're wrong."

"Don't you get it? _I _should have died, not Frankie. But I'm still here, dead inside, rotting away... There's nothing left."

"Carlos, your heart is still strong. You're still in there."

"No I'm not. The Carlos you knew is dead."

"I don't believe that."

"Why not? Even Emily does, or she'd be here. They told me she turned her back on me and let me get captured."

I was stunned. "Carlos..." I said. "Emily didn't turn on you."

"Then where is she? Her absence is proof enough."

"She's... She's _dead_, Carlos. They killed her, just like they killed Frankie."

He stared at me. "No," he said. "They told me she wasn't hurt... She's fine. She _has _to be..."

I had tears in my eyes. "She's gone, man. It happened the same day we almost saved you."

"I... No. No, she can't be..." He was shaking.

James reached toward Carlos and touched his arm. "She believed in you, Mate. We _all _do. Let us help you," he said.

Carlos had tears in his eyes. "How can anyone ever forgive me?"

"We already have, Mate. We know it wasn't your fault. Now you've got to forgive _yourself_."

"I'm dark. I'm empty inside, tainted..."

"No. You're _Carlos_, and you're going to come back to us." James looked deeply into his eyes and touched his hand to his chest. "Remember your light. Remember Frankie, and Emily. Think of Abigail. Think of _all _of us. This doesn't have to end here, Carlos. Choose us. Choose your _family_. We love you. We're here for you, and we're ready to stand with you and fight." He paused. "Come _home, _Mate."

I saw the change in Carlos. Slowly, his energy seemed to lighten, until he was himself again. I was amazed. With a single pep talk, James had somehow healed the darkness in his heart.

None of us had noticed, but Stephanie was back up. She lunged at Dixie, who shot an energy ball at her. Stephanie dodged it. She reached Dixie. I was ready to jump in and save her when Carlos got involved. I was mildly worried he'd attack Dixie, but instead, he shot a fire ball at Stephanie. She collapsed. I could smell her flesh burning as she screamed. She was alive, but she would be down for a while and would need a healer.

"Dixie," Carlos said, "I wanna go home now."

She pulled him into a hug. "Welcome back, Darlin'," she said. She turned to me and asked, "Ready?"

"_So _ready," I said as I opened a portal. "Come on, guys. Let's go home."

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **__Only one chapter left! _


	17. Chapter 17

**EPILOGUE**

I am exceptionally good at what I do.

That _still _sounds braggy, but let me tell you a story anyway.

Once upon a time, there was this telepath who could read anyone and everyone's minds (even when he wished he couldn't). His name was Michael Hutter, and although the evil World Wrestling Entertainment company had deemed him unworthy and thrown him away like trash, a beautiful Southern Queen saw something in him. She took him in off the streets and renamed him Ethan Carter III, a strong name that demanded respect. And so, the broken man was reborn.

In his new kingdom, a land known as _Carter Country,_ he met many enchanting people. There was the beauty (Jamie) who fell in love with the beast (Mark), the wild wolf (Wes) who tried to tame the viscious vixen (Lauren) and who turned her into a creature like him to save her life because he couldn't bear to lose her. Then there was the other wolf (Eddie), who fought for all those in need. There was the enigma who defied categorization (Jeff), and his brother, the Good (if somewhat goofy) King (Matt... What? The guy _literally_ has a throne). Most significantly of all, the broken man met the noble Court Jester, a faithful royal servant called Spud, who quickly became the best friend he would ever have and who would one day become the most unexpected of heroes. Others were there as well, like the town cryer (Ken, of course, because Lord knows everyone could hear him), the almighty magician whose words enchanted one and all (Drew), the good people of Carter Country, and the _not _so good ones.

The broken man lived in a content state for a time, protecting those as he became the Queen's most noble knight. The day he met the only woman he couldn't read, however, his life changed forever. Suddenly, he wanted more. This beautiful Goddess enchanted him instantly. He realized he'd been incomplete for all of that time. The Goddess came with a tiny creature who worked very hard to make the knight give up on his pursuit, but the knight was stubborn, and soon he came to love her creature, too. Although they would ultimately lose the Goddess, the knight and the creature realized that her greatest gift had been giving them each other.

I cannot claim that they all lived happily ever after, but they did the best they could. They laughed, they cried, they celebrated every victory, and they continued to fight the good fight. Only by giving up would they ever _truly_ lose.

"You're _really _lame, Michael," Abigail said with a laugh as she cut off my story.

"Do you mind? I'm _trying _to give an epic narration of our lives here," I argued.

"You just turned us into a fairy tale."

"Ever hear of a bedtime story? You're _seven_. You're supposed to like those."

"Read me _Game of Thrones _sometime and we can talk about a bedtime story."

I stared at her in horror. "How do you even _know _what that is? I mean, you haven't... _Have _you? Oh God, I'm a bad guardian!"

Abigail giggled. "You're too easy. Relax, Michael. I've never seen or read it. But don't you _ever _say you're a bad guardian again! You died to protect me. _Literally._ There _is _no better guardian in the world."

I hugged her. "I love you, Abby."

"I love you, too."

As Abigail fell asleep, I thought about what had happened in the recent weeks. After we rescued Carlos, things calmed down for a little while. Aries left TNA and Khoya turned face and started going by his real name again. That last bit was unexpected, and none of us were sure what it meant, but Dixie gave him a chance to let at least a little bit of light into his heart by having him dance. This blew up on social media and seemed to give him a piece of the humanity he'd been lacking for nearly as long as we'd known him. Maybe there is hope for him yet. I guess we'll see in time.

Jarrett came back into our lives, and a new battle was beginning, but I had faith we'd come out on top. Team Baddie might be evil and willing to do anything to destroy Team Good, but _we _have a bunch of misfits, including Jeff Hardy and Rockstar Spud. With a team like _ours, _there is no way we are going to lay down and die. See, the thing is, there's _always _a new battle to fight, but as long as we have each other, we're going to win.

As I lay in bed that night snuggling my Abigail Creature, I closed my eyes for just a second and somehow fell asleep. I dreamed of the very kingdom I'd told Abigail about, and best of all, Emily was there.

"Thank you," she whispered. "For everything you did for me, and for loving my daughter."

"There was no way _not _to love her," I told her. "Just like I couldn't help but love _you_." I pulled her into my arms and kissed her.

"I'm sorry I can't be with you. I love you both so much."

"We love you, too... But we get it. You have to move on..."

"So do _you_."

"I know." I sighed. "Will you still visit me?"

"When I can. I'll come here, to this place, and I'll find you." She hesitated. "Are you okay, Michael?"

"I miss you, Emily. I always will. But I'm going to be alright. We _both_ are."

She nodded. As the creature stirred, she woke me up, and Emily faded away.

I looked at Abigail. "Hungry?" I asked.

"Starving," Abigail confirmed.

"Pancakes?"

"Ewwwww, jerk! No. Waffles and eggs."

"Waffles and pancakes are the same thing," I teased her.

"They are _not_!" She punched my side playfully. I walked into our kitchen and set to work on making breakfast. I cherish these moments. Abigail is my family. There is nothing I won't do for that kid and she knows it. And with the creature for a sidekick, I _know _I can do anything. So bring it, Team Baddie. Because we've _got _this.

_**(-LATER-) **_

_Ladies and Gentlemen… E…C… Three! _

_Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble… Trouble, trouble, trouble…_

I walked out toward the ring with my beloved TNA World Heavyweight Championship, enjoying the rush of the thoughts of the crowd and letting my entrance music get me pumped. (Hey, McMahons! Remember how you said I can't wrestle? Well, apparently, _yes I can, _because I'm the _champion, _bitches!) As I arrived in the ring, I grabbed a microphone, and I began delivering my latest epic heel promo.

And with that moment of life going on, I will end this story. It wasn't my story to tell, but seeing as how Emily couldn't tell you herself, I decided to do it to honor the woman I loved and lost who changed my life forever. When this story began, I was an exceptionally good heel, and an even better telepath. I'm still both of those things, but now I'm also the very lucky guardian of one very special Abigail Creature. I may not know where my life is heading on any given day, and I may not know how any future battle will end, but right now, in this moment, life is pretty good.

_**THE END.**_

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **__Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed this story. (Special thanks to my Muse, TakerReigns, as always. You are my eternal inspiration.) I appreciate everyone's feedback and I love that this story inspired such strong emotions in those of you who reviewed it. I know Emily's death was heartbreaking and was an unpopular choice. Quite frankly, I didn't even want to write it, even though I knew when I started this story that this was where it would end up. Unfortunately, I couldn't change it. Emily deserved to die a hero, and Abigail and Michael needed to lose her to find their strength. I do apologize for any Feels I have broken (including my own). Anyway, I really loved writing this story. EC III's mind is a really fun place to explore. Thank you all for taking the journey with me. You guys rock! _


	18. Sequel

**SEQUEL NOTE:**To my shock, I have started a sequel to this fic. It was supposed to be a stand-alone fic, but apparently, I couldn't leave things the way they ended. In this new fic, six years have passed, and as it turns out, Emily has been brought back from the dead… With no memories and turned evil! Will Michael and Abigail be able to save her? The new fic is called_ Deviant. _I hope you all enjoy it!


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